Is there room for another Victorian era historical murder-mystery series? On the evidence of this first book from Ambrose Parry, there is definitely the makings of something special and a little bit different from the norm. Undoubtedly the reason for its success is in the authorship, 'Ambrose Parry' being a pseudonym for a writing team comprising of author Chris Brookmyre and medical historian Marisa Haetzman. The rationale behind the team-up, rather than the conventional route of an author relying on expert sources for specialised information, is that the book can enjoy the benefits of authentic detailed historical and medical knowledge of a fascinating period in the development of modern medical procedures and combine it with an established crime author's sense of plotting and pacing that can tie it into a thrilling murder-mystery.

One indication of the collaboration being seamless is that if I didn't know the Chris Brookmyre was involved in this book, I certainly wouldn't have guessed, even though The Way of All Flesh opens with the discovery of the gruesome murder of an Edinburgh Old Town prostitute by a figure with a little bit of moral ambiguity. Will Raven, a young medical student about to enter an apprenticeship with James Young Simpson, an eminent professor of midwifery, has previously consorted with Evie in a less than professional manner, but recently had been trying to help her out with money problems. The discovery of her death is a shock and he feels compelled to investigate further, but a man in his position can't be seen to have been associated with her. The loan however has caused Raven other problems, with vicious thugs now hounding him for repayment.

It's not the most auspicious way for Raven to enter the Simpson household, and it certainly doesn't impress Sarah, a housekeeper for Dr Simpson. Sarah helps out informally at the doctor's surgery, picking up useful information on ailments and treatments in the process, educating herself with books. Keenly intelligent, there is however no route for a young woman, particularly of her background, to enter the profession in 1847, so there is perhaps a little bit of resentment at this young man being given preferential treatment. That doesn't entirely account for Sarah's initial dislike of Raven however. She's sure he is not entirely who he claims to be and her keen eye quickly proves that she might have good grounds for suspicion.

What brings the two of them together - with despite their initial resentment of each other some not entirely unexpected attraction - are further reports of deaths of other young women in Edinburgh. There appears to be a connection between their backgrounds - prostitutes, servants - the possibility that they may have been pregnant, and the manner of their deaths suggesting poisoning. Sarah's background and position as a servant means that she can go to places without attracting attention, while Raven has recourse to investigation of some of the medical matters that the cases present. The sense of teamwork here, of each bringing a set of skills and knowledge to the table in a way reflects the working partnership of 'Ambrose Parry'. And in both aspects, it's clearly a relationship that works well.

It's by no means certain that the collaboration will work as The Way of All Flesh takes a little while to develop the central murder investigation. With much going on into the early research into anaesthesia in the 1840s - much of the development taking place in the medical world of Edinburgh - there is no shortage of incidents and descriptions of medical procedures, and no shortage of action in Raven's attempts to keep out of the hands of the criminal underworld. It's only in those more dangerous parts of town however that Raven will perhaps find the information he needs to identify who murdered Evie and the other girls, and why. That investigation takes a little while to find its feet, but the wait is more than worthwhile.

The Way of All Flesh is never anything less than fascinating for the background and historical detail that is provided into the medical world of Edinburgh around this time, and also for the colourful class, gender and social divisions that it highlights. With the medical procedures being primarily around childbirth, the murders all being young women, and with an indignant Sarah playing an important role in showing the prejudice and inequalities that abound in Victorian society, the issue of the treatment of women is very much to the fore. A little over-emphasised perhaps, but the slow build up pays off in how it gives the main characters of Sarah and Raven some depth, and how all these matters relate directly to crime in the city. This is a terrific start to a promising new series by a great 'new' author.

This combines so many of my interests that I honestly could have commissioned someone to write this for me. Historical fiction is my favourite genre, I work with early modern medical texts, and we live in Scotland. Recognising names of doctors, remedies, and places in Edinburgh was seriously fun.

The book captures the atmosphere of 19th century Edinburgh well, and the authors have worked in a lot of intriguing details about the Scottish medical community and the advances they introduced to medicine. While I enjoyed these aspects quite a bit, the actual story itself left me feeling detached. The plot revolves around the suspicious deaths of lower class women, and even though the premise is interesting, the foreshadowing gets so heavy handed that it is easy for the reader to guess the culprit before the main characters get there. I also found the romance side plot pretty underwhelming. I wish they had developed the relationship between the two characters more and made it more believable, or just left that out completely.

All in all, I had fun reading this but felt it didn't fully live up to its potential.

Really entertaining stuff- there is a whisp of freshness without its being anachronistic about these people - Raven is careful about sexism, for example, just part of his nature - and the prostitute's murder that sets the whole story off demonstrates this. By the time he meets up with his compatible, perfect partner, i was really sold on him, and then on the 'team'. Really adept and good characterisations - the story gets a bit contrived sometimes but it is credibly gruesome in the end - including its solution .i will look for more ..

*I somehow got a duplicate approval for this, adding duplicate review to clear*

This tale of murder takes place in mid 19th century Edinburgh, where the city is at the forefront of the world's advances in medicine - both medical practices and procedures and also drugs and anaesthetics. Many nights are spent with some of the city's top surgeons sitting round the dinner table in the post-prandial slumber sampling various substances looking to find the perfect anaesthetic.

Will Raven, a recently qualified doctor, starts a new job as apprentice to Edinburgh's pre-eminent midwifery expert, Dr James Young Simpson. But he has recently found the dead body of a female friend and starts to investigate the mysterious circumstances of her demise.

The book takes several strands: we have the true history of Edinburgh's medical revolution where doctors like Simpson vied to get the job done but also find better ways to do it for their patients, we have the murder mystery angle, we have the capable and frustrated women who are refused to even attempt to do jobs they are clearly able to do, and we have the class system in full evidence and while many go along with it, some people like Simpson try to get past this and make their households more inclusive for all.

The threads are all interwoven brilliantly and combine to give a story that is both thrilling and interesting.

Having read a lot of Chris Brookmyre, I had high expectations for his storytelling and these were more than met with a brilliantly paced and enjoyable page-turner. I believe writing with his wife has helped tone down the language a little and the tone of the dialogue is very different to his previous work.

My one gripe would be that the climax of the story was a little laboured, with every single event, decision and twist explained numerous times from different perspectives. Given I had spotted a number of hints quite early on and knew who the perpetrator was, and was happy to assume certain things had happened, I didn't feel the need to have this confirmed at length in great detail.

Otherwise an excellent book and the start of a new series that I will be avidly waiting for the next instalment of.

I am a big fan of darker historical fiction, and this certainly ticked all my boxes. It's always interesting to read something co-written and sometimes you can see the contrast between the two authors. This was executed wonderfully. An intriguing and compelling plot, with well fleshed out characters and exciting writing to match it all. Wonderful book.

I wasn't too sure what to make of this book when I initially started to read it, but somehow it seemed to reel you in and it got more and more interesting until you didn't want to put the book down! Despite being a 'historical' setting, it made it very interesting to read and the characters were enjoyable too.

The Way of the Flesh is a well-told story. The nineteenth century setting is believable, the social mores, the language, etc. are all quite convincing. The mystery moves at a slow pace but the writing style keeps one involved. At the level of building an atmosphere, the authors do a brilliant job.

There are a couple of crucial instances, however, where one has to suspend disbelief, which are conveniently used to drive the narrative at the expense of building the mystery. For instance, Raven’s reason for disclosing his secret to a housemaid he hardly knows and who doesn’t like him does not seem good enough. Also, Sarah’s decision to visit someone she doesn’t trust to confront him alone is incongruous with her intelligence and ability to read people. Raven stopping to look through Simpson’s journal when he knows Sarah’s life might be in danger and every second counts is also difficult to fathom.

What is also disappointing is that though the blurb claims to be a mystery that is solved by two people, a man and a woman, the book itself does not live up to this claim. This is more of a pity because the book has been co-written by a man and a woman. The story is told primarily from Raven’s perspective, and there are more chapters that feature him than Sarah. His chapters are also 3 to 4 times longer than Sarah’s. Sarah is relegated to the role of Raven’s assistant as she holds the lamp/candle while he scans a register or picks a lock. Later chapters also see her only as Raven’s love interest where situations are manufactured to bring the two in close physical proximity to each other. This happens not once or twice but several times. The only saving grace is that in the end she’s the one who rescues him rather be rescued by him.

At the end of the book, the authors say in an interview that one of the main issues in the book is how women were limited by nineteenth-century society. However, the authors have done a disservice to women in the present century by relegating their female protagonist to a secondary role all the while making her claim that she and her male counterpart were “equals in this enterprise”. Ones hopes that if there are going to be other books in the series, as the authors have claimed, they will work a little harder to make their protagonists equal because even though the book is based in an earlier century, it doesn’t have to be written with a pen or spectacles of the same century.

What an exciting historical crime novel showing the progress of anaesthetics. It made enjoyable, addictive reading.

I was drawn to this book as Edinburgh is my home city and I spent my working life in medical research, and I wasn't disappointed. This tale of young Will Raven starting his medical career under the wing of the renowned Prof Simpson really paints a vivid picture of both Edinburgh ( the wealthy and the seedy!) ,the medical profession and the birth of obstetrics and anaesthesia in the mid 19th century. Some of the descriptions are somewhat harrowing, so perhaps not for the faint hearted. The introduction of Sarah, a housemaid with aspirations, gives more depth and I very much look forward to reading more about how their lives and aspirations develop.

A thrilling medical drama set in the early days of modern medicine, old and new town Edinburgh feature as characters in their own right and anyone familiar with the tales of Burke and Hare and the like will enjoy this next step in the development of the medical profession. I confess that I don’t usually go for novels set in the past however this had me gripped from the start. Raven, Sarah and Simpson are all characters I’d love to see more of in the future.

Well thought out, this dramatic tale will leave you quite exhausted from the pace, it certainly rips along !

Looking forward to the next instalment which is certain to follow

Great historical crime set in mid 19th century Edinburgh. The descriptions of childbirth during this time are enough to put anyone off getting pregnant but the atmosphere of medical advancement and experimentation makes for an interesting, exciting read. Loved the characters who are all complex and although I sort of guessed the twist, the story is well told, fast paced, humorous in parts, shocking in some and well worth a read. Sarah is a very strong female character, ahead of her time and I look forward to meeting her again in a further adventure. I guess that she and Will Raven will become a team and further medical adventures will ensue. Good stuff.

I remember several years ago going to a rather fascinating talk about the life and work of James Young Simpson who was the first to demonstrate and popularise the use of chloroform on humans. Two things I distinctly remember from the talk was that at the time major operations would be conducted without anaesthesia and that Simpson survived the chloroform dosages he administered to himself when testing its veracity. This is incorporated into this riveting historical crime drama written under the pen name of Ambrose Parry which is a collaboration between Chris Brookmyre often referred to as an author of "Tartan Noir" and his wife Marisa Haetzman a consultant anesthetist with a master’s degree in the history of medicine. Written in a style far removed from a normal Brookmyre novel and in keeping with a Victorian novel the story reflects the social, medical and gender issues that were prevalent at that time.

The story is set in 1840's Edinburgh a city that as we know has a split personality between its old and new town, one side inhabited by the rich and the other by the poor. As also reflected in the writings of Stevenson and Hogg this paints a wonderfully descriptive atmospheric caricature of what life would have been like in the juxtaposition of these two contrasting areas, each having its unique character. Simpson not only contributed to medical innovation and discovery but was also a a progressive in social attitudes with his town house at 52 Queen Street, Edinburgh being used as a medical practice accommodating the lower members of the then rigid social class structure as well as a gathering point for intellectuals. Together with medical innovation and social commentary another dominant theme of the book is gender and the very restrictive opportunities that were available to women of all classes at that time. This is conveyed through the character of Sarah a housemaid at the Simpson's home who despite her passion for medical learning is thwarted at every turn and is restricted to her domestic duties.

The main protagonist is Will Raven and the book commences just prior to his commencement of employment as an assistant to Professor Simpson with his discovery of the dead body of a woman he knew who worked as a prostitute in the Old Town. This would not be the only death that we encounter as the story evolves into a crime who done it and why. As is stated at the notes at the end of the book this will be the first in a series and I'm sure that if the standard is that of the original we can look forward to be similarly entertained and due to the fine level of research that has been undertaken equally educated.

A very interesting historical novel set in Edinburgh. A look at midwifery and the evolution of anaesthetics . The main story was also very good with robust characters and lots of mystery and mayhem.

I absolutely loved this book - a new collaboration between Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. I'm not the only one to love it; I believe that the TV rights have been snapped up by Benedict Cumberbatch's TV production company. Something to look forward to on TV!

Back to the book: It's a historical medical mystery set in 19th century Edinburgh that moves skilfully between the two faces of our Capital city - the poor and the wealthy.

It's visceral - the scenes that involve childbirth really bring home to you how bloody and dangerous giving birth has been (for rich and poor alike) and makes you look anew at our beleaguered NHS. Which is not surprising, given that Dr Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist.

The cast of characters is so well-written and the sense of place so beautifully defined, that I was sent scurrying to Google several times to see what and who was fact and what was fiction!

In the character of Will Raven we have a mysterious background which, even at the end of the book, promises to yield more in subsequent adventures. Sarah Fisher, the young housemaid with boundless curiosity and ambitions, we truly have a young woman to root for. Both find themselves working for the eminent Dr Simpson (a real person whose medical achievements, I'm utterly ashamed to admit, I had never heard of). But thanks to the skilful penwo/manship of Ambrose Parry he lives and breathes once again.

I wondered how it would work - Ambrose Parry being two people writing a book together. Especially when one is such a well-established voice as Chris Brookmyre. You don't need to worry, it's reassuringly Brookmyre - the sharp lines, the humour, the pace - it's all there. And, in between the Brookmyre, Dr Haetzman's historical research is seamlessly stitched.

Cannot wait to read more from Ambrose Parry about the goings on in the Simpson household and Fisher and Raven's next adventure

I love historical novels and crime, so this book seemed ideal for my next read. It was! I loved it and the way the story worked it’s way through to a satisfying finale. I empathised particularly with Sarah the maid, who had more intelligence and common sense than many of the ‘men’ Doctors she has to support. Will definitely be looking for more by the author in the future.

When Will Raven starts his apprenticeship with the renowned Dr Simpson he gets more than he’s bargained for as women are being murdered around Edinburgh. Teaming up with housemaid Sarah, can they discover the truth before it’s too late?

The Way of All the Flesh is a historical fiction mystery that has strong medical base and knowledge thrown in. I felt this affected the pace quite a bit as it was a little slow to start, but sped up nicely towards the end to make me tear through the pages to find out the culprit.

The story itself seems very nicely researched and based in fact which is a nice touch. Upon reading more about the subject online I can see many famous figures are used as side-characters and many true (and remarkable!) events are used in the plot which is great. I enjoyed the descriptions of ancient, violent Edinburgh and thought the fictional characters of Raven and Sarah were well integrated into the factual story. I liked the slight romance between them and I gather there will be a sequel based around them which I will certainly look out for. The alternating narrative between them was a good choice and helped to carry the story along.

I did feel that the ‘modern’ touches were a little jarring – Sarah is quite a feminist and I did feel her viewpoints became a little preachey and unrealistic at times, particularly for someone of the lower classes – it felt like it was written with much too much hindsight in mind. As the story includes historically accurate story of the birth of ether and chloroform used in medical practice I did feel the inclusion of ‘peri peri’ was a bit weird and brought me out of the story a little.

Overall The Way of All the Flesh was a bit of a slow paced read to start with but is a well-researched historical fiction that will stay with you after you read it – and you learn some real history from it as well which is always a good thing! Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading about Victorian medical student Will Raven and his house maid 'side kick'. What a great team. I even learned a little of medical history and how little regard was given to women trying to give birth and what happened when it went horribly wrong. I fumed about the fact that women were so badly regarded and treated in this era. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. A historical crime novel what a refreshing change.

Raven is stepping into his new role as a trainee doctor, and is keen to grab every opportunity. Sarah is relegated to the servants quarters, but she longs to be allowed to work in medicine. Despite initially clashing, the two find themselves working together to solve a string of mysterious deaths.

I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a little bit slow to start with, but once I got into it, I was hooked.

This is set in Victorian Edinburgh, and follows a young doctor-in-training, Will Raven. He takes up residence as the new apprentice to Dr Simpson, one of the best obstetricians in the city.
Raven is initially driven by a financial need, to pay off debts he has accumulated (for very good reasons), but soon finds himself engaged in working out the mystery of the death of his friend (and working girl). The number of lower-class women and whores who end up dead starts to rack up, but the police have no time for these nobodies. It is up to Raven to find out who is behind the deaths, and why.
I didn't really like Raven in the beginning, his character was just a little bit jarring, too cocky and arrogant; but as the story went on, and the character developed, he got much better.

Sarah, on the other hand, I liked from the start.
She is our other narrator; a maid in Dr Simpson's service. She is also incredibly intelligent, and often grates at the fact that she cannot pursue a career in medicine, because she is a woman. She is further frustrated when Raven enters the house, and has every advantage, despite the fact he is lying about his past. They are of a similar age, and similar intelligence, but are set apart by class and gender; so they naturally butt heads to begin with.

The plot is well thought out, and pulls you along, feeding clues and throwing in red herrings naturally.
What I really like is the background to the story. You feel like you've been dropped into the middle of a period drama, the atmosphere is woven subtly, but is there for every page.
Even better is the insight into obstetrics in the Victorian age, and how medicine and chemistry were coming together to pave the new way. It is realistically gory, but the author does not revel in it, they simply present the facts and let the story do the rest. I felt like I came away learning something, as well as being entertained.

I would definitely recommend this book, and look forward to more of Parry's work.

I was sent an early copy of this book for my independent honest review
I read the premise of this and was very excited to get to it. A historical crime with medical content is a refreshing change to many new releases at the moment.
Straight away I became engaged in the plot and writing style and couldn't put this down. An early murder and an interesting selection of characters was a big plus for me. Once we started attending births, the research into early anaesthetic and how Drs were trained and gained their experience I thought it was well on its way to bring a 5* read for me.
Be warned, some of the medical practices back in the day were very gruesome and explicitly discussed. Not for the front hearted, even having a nursing background I felt a little squeamish.
After about a third of the way through, unfortunately the plot lost its way for me. The book seemed to forget it was an historical crime and not a medical journal. Although interesting to learn about medical research of the time, the crime and it's relevance became lost. It became very mundane and a chore to pick up. This was a shame as I was so riveted to start with.
Still an enjoyable book with an easy to follow writing style, however the issues I felt with the plot made this a 3* read for me overall, however the first third was certainly 5* material.
I am certainly looking forward to more from this author /man and wife team.

I didn't initially realise that this was Chris Brookmyre writing with a partner, given that it's historical (Edinburgh, 1840s). It's got all his usual pacing, and is a good combination of history of medicine and a bit of historical crime. Will Raven is an apprentice to Dr James Simpson, who is the obstetrician who pioneered the use of anesthesia, and Raven has something of a murky past. Sarah is Simpson's housemaid, who helps with the clinics in the house and is interested in medicine herself - although can't train any further as she's a woman and it's the 1840s. They discover that some mysterious deaths of prostitutes are connected, and that somewhere in the city there is an illegal and dangerous abortionist at work and begin to investigate. There's some social observation as well as the crime and the history of medicine, and some nice Edinburgh details which I very much enjoyed. It's a little slower paced than Brookmyre's usual books, but that suits the story and there's not a shortage of action - I really enjoyed it!