St. Winifred's Maternity Wing was built on a very reasonably priced piece of land. Nobody asked why.

Four hundred years ago, seven midwives were hanged in a field for the crime of practicing without a licence. One of them made a bargain. She didn't need to rise from that grave — she just needed somebody, eventually, to build on top of her.

Now the newborns at St. Winifred's are arriving with five o'clock shadows, briefcases, and strong opinions about fixed-rate mortgages. One of them is suing the hospital. Only Dr. Rex Manning — obstetrician, author of the (out of print) textbook Manning's Deliverance, and a man who has never once questioned his own jawline — stands between St. Winifred's and an Administrator who has been signing birth certificates since long before certificates existed.

She has never lost a baby on her table.

She has also never told anyone what she takes instead.

A hospital built on unconsecrated ground

A demon who feeds on paperwork instead of blood

An eleven-day-old solicitor with a briefcase and a grudge

One doctor's textbook, and considerably less medical training than the cover suggests

THE PLACENTA is a 30,000-word novel of cheesy, gleefully overwritten medical horror — for readers who like their scares with a laugh track, their heroes insufferable, and their bureaucracy genuinely terrifying.

From Lee Emerick, author of Nightjar and Cul-de-Sac

The Placenta

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