What a brilliant book, I absolutely loved it! Set in Edinburgh in the mid 1800s, it combines a murder mystery with an accurate historical account of medical research and practice of the time. Student doctor Will Raven joins forces with housemaid Sarah to investigate the suspicious deaths of several young women. The way Sarah's obvious intelligence was disregarded was true to the conventions of the time, and I loved the way she began to command the respect of the men she was considered subordinate to. You can feel yourself immersed the culture and atmosphere of 19th century Edinburgh, it was so authentically written and evocative of the period. Some gruesome medial scenes right enough but that is the way things were then! Also some extremely dodgy characters masquerading as respectable members of society. Excellent book, I would certainly recommend it.

I would like to thank Canonbooks US and Netgalley for issuing me with ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Way of All Flesh is one of the best historical novels I have read recently. Set in the mid 1840s in Edinborough, it focuses around mysterious murders committed in the city, but not only the mystery is the best part of this novel. All details regarding the period such as the descriptions of women's clothes, lively characters, witty dialogues and superbly created atmosphere of the Scottish city add massively to the attractiveness of the novel. And one other thing, the medical discoveries and research of those days are one of the strongest points of this novel. Hope to read more by the author(s) in the not so distant future!

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry a pseudonym for the husband and wife authors Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. Historical fiction that takes place in 1847 Victoria Edinburgh. The characters and settings are so realistic you feel as if you are there watching every event. Excellent characters especially Raven and Sarah the reader knows them well. Wonderful insight into medical practice, knowledge and latest medications. The authors show in detail how medicine can be used for good or evil. Plenty of thrills, suspense, mystery romance and secrets. I look forward to reading all the books in this series and other books by the authors. My thanks to the authors, publisher and netgalley for making this book available to me to read and review. Well done.

The way of the Flesh grabbed me from the book cover .... I know you should never judge a book by its cover but so glad I did ....

But I will say this book starts off slow but builds momentum, Its a fantastic book sent in Edinburgh in the 1847 and Ambrose Parry really sets the scene and you can really imagine what it was like living there during that time in history and having kids with not much medical help but with the invention of Cholorform to help patients during childbirth its makes for educational but interesting read.

The characters are really well written and you really feel for them and book has some really great moments between the two main characters Raven and Sarah. I would quite happily read another from Ambrose Parry and would recommended anyone who enjoys a historical thriller with midwifery aspects .... this is the book for you !!

This book drew me in because it is historical fiction with medical elements, the setting is Edinburgh and it sounded quite mysterious, dark and gruesome, everything I want in a book! I think I first came across it on Savidge Reads channel on Youtube and I aways adore his historical fiction and darker book recommendations.

We follow aspiring doctor, Will Raven (the best character name ever) as he discovers the gruesome death of a friend and he starts his apprenticeship with an illustrious doctor, Dr Simpson. What follows is a peak into the lives of women at that time from various levels of society and how they are viewed as second class citizens and inferior to men as well as Will Raven's struggles and the medical and technological advances of the time such as ether, photography and more. As with The Death Of Mrs Westaway I loved the eerie, grim and atmospheric tone of the book, it was also quite quick and easy to read and it was definitely compelling, full of mystery and intrigue.

My only negative about this read was that it was fairly slow paced, that's not to say that nothing happens as there are always events but it was just gory labour, gory labour, birth, blood, gory labour which is the topic Will Raven is interested in and a major proportion of the book; however it felt very repetitive. Despite those negatives, it was definitely an engaging, atmospheric and interesting read that I cannot recommend enough if you are a fan of historical fiction, especially with a medical elements.

"Mrs. Graseby sat by the fire, sipping her Darjeeling." #thewayofallflesh #ambroseparry #canongate #netgalley

I LOVED this book, by far the best one I've read all summer. So atmospheric with great characters and witty, sharp and intelligent writing. I saw the villain coming a mile away, and some plot points wrapped up a little too conveniently, but it didn't matter. Will Raven and Sarah Fisher are wonderfully drawn, and I look forward to reading more of their adventures, as the authors indicate this is the first in a series. Fascinating, and fun, with some good scares thrown in. "An eerie silence settled upon the room, broken only by the disconcerting sound of dripping. Then the baby began to cry."

P.S. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC.

1847. Something mysterious is happening in the city of Edinburgh. Women have started turning up dead, contorted by strange pains, and the police haven't been able to figure out what or who is the cause behind this. Will Raven, a medical student, starts his apprenticeship with Dr. Simpson in the city of Edinburgh. In a time of medical achievements and new procedures, Raven will find himself struggle between keeping up with the ways and schedule of Dr Simpson's house, and finding out what has happened to his friend and recently deceased, Evie.

The Way of All Flesh is a well written book, with an atmospheric setting and historically accurate characters. It was a very interesting book to read, not concentrating solely on the mystery in hand. However, it took too long for the plot to reach its main theme. It often felt like the story was too long, analyzing again and again aspects of the heroe's characters and lives, repeating itself. It also was a little too predictable as far as the mystery was concerned.

All in all it was not bad, it just felt like ti needed to be shorter and more concise.

A low-class doctor seeks to distinguish himself in his chosen field, until his friend, a prostitute, is murdered. While trying to solve the case, he finds help from a plucky housemaid at his place of work. Numerous operations steer the plot around, until one forgets there is a plot. At times, the writing is heavy, the clues a tad sloppy and although the reveal is somewhat surprisingy, it is only due to how <i>long-winded</i> everything is - you've forgotten any vital information by the time the book reaches its conclusion.

I found this tale to be a little self-indulgent and soon began skimming, especially when the housemaid repeatedly expressed her desire to work in male-dominated fields and how she liked books meant only for males and how, oh, god, she wishes she could do all the things males could do. Alas, she is considered a lowly female (repeat as desired).

That isn't to say <i>The Way of All Flesh</i> is a bad book. It's crafted well, the writing style suits the time period and the research and real-life characters are marvellously communicated. There is much to like and also, much to lose you.

This was a terrific read, a historical novel set in Edinburgh, well researched and full of excitement. Will Raven, an aspiring young doctor, finds a friend of his dead. She is a prostitute, one he has known in the biblical sense in the past but now a friend who he has tried to help. When he finds that her death is not to be investigated he vows to find out what has been going on but in the meantime he has to avoid the thugs hired to beat him up by the moneylender he owes money to and to start an apprenticeship with the renowned Dr Simpson. He is joined in his endeavours by Sarah Fisher, Simpson's housemaid who is bright and resourceful and is ambitious in her own right. Together they track down the mysterious Madame Anjou who appears to be behind a number of unexplained deaths in the city. Ambrose Perry is a husband and wife team, Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. Brookmyre is a renowned crime writer and Haetzman an anaesthetist who has studied the history of medicine in particular that of midwifery and anaesthesia. And what a gory history this is. This is to be the first in a series which follows Raven as he progresses in his career. I can't wait to read more. Thanks to Canongate and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ambrose Parry is the pen name of multi-award winning Scottish crime writer Chris Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman. It was Haetzman’s research into medical practice in Edinburgh in the 1850s that put the two down the track of collaborating on a novel set in the period.

Being a crime novel, The Way of All Flesh opens with a death – a prostitute named Evie, found by one of her regular clients, but also friend, Will Raven. Raven runs from the scene, straight into the arms of the debt collectors looking for repayment of the money he had borrowed to help Evie out. Raven is hoping that his new apprenticeship with famous “male midewife” (aka obstetrician) James Simpson, will help him earn the money that he needs. In Simpson’s house, which also serves as his clinic, is housemaid Sarah who has the capacity to be more and yearns for something better.

It takes some time for the murder mystery to come into focus. Some news about other deaths slowly builds in both Raven and Sarah a suspicion that something strange is afoot. They form a loose partnership as they tentatively investigate. Both characters are engaging and distinctive enough to avoid usual crime fiction stereotypes even when navigating some familiar plot beats.

Regular crime readers will pick this one pretty early on. But the draw of this book is not the plot. Rather it is the use of the crime genre to explore the development of medical techniques at the time. Parry charts the early use of ether to assist with pain in delivery and moves on to the discovery of use of chloroform. On the way, readers are treated to some fairly gruesome and explicit birthing techniques and surgery without anaesthetic.

Parry creates a great feel of the Edinburgh of the time, including the upper class New Town and shady Old Town. In particular the book explores the development of the medical profession as it transitioned from glorified butchery to something else. The bodice ripping (at times) plot, allows for a fun and interesting exploration of attitudes and beliefs of the time. And the afterward suggests that there is plenty more source material to build a long running series around.

I read an unproofed copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Thank you. There was a lot to like about this book but it didn't hit the five star spot for me. Quite a lot of repetition which I think a good edit could have cleared up - and it might have by the time the book is published. It's a mix of genre, pretty undefinable, sci-fi meets family saga meets murder mystery and intrigue. It is well written and I enjoyed Kate Mascarenhas's style and use of language.

This first book in the series takes place in Edinburgh in 1847
where there is great leaps in scientific medicine. The first trials of chloroform changes people’s lives. It shows how women were restricted in their choices at this time and how darker medicine was been practiced. Into this story comes Sarah a housemaid who wishes to better herself and Will Raven who becomes apprentice to Professor Simpson in the field of midwifery. Women’s bodies are turning up having died in horrific pain. Will believes there is more to these deaths as his friend had been one of the first. Sarah and Will have a dark journey to finally come to the truth of the mystery.
I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel is set in Edinburgh in 1847, a dual city, with both the Old Town and the New Town, once the home to brilliant advances in medical science, but a city of great poverty with a truly unpleasant, violent side. In New Town the book focuses on the Home of Dr Simpson, His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia. Dr Simpson is a well-known gynaecologist and surgeon, who was instrumental in discovering the anaesthetic properties of a substance chloroform. chloroform was used to ease the discomforts of child birth and to assist with difficult births, which in were frequently fatal. Also living in his house were his assistants, Drs Mathew Duncan and George Keith, all real people.

While the principal characters, are all imaginary. Will Raven is given the post of apprentice to Dr Simpson, Raven is also given a room in the Simpson home and there he encounters Sarah, a maidservant who has a fascination for medical matters and secretly reads books on the subject, borrowed from Dr Simpson's library and assists in a basic capacity with clinics. As Sarah is of lowly birth and more importantly, female, is destined to never rise above this station in life. However, she is a strong willed young woman, Sarah has hopes of one day working in the medical profession an outrageous idea for a woman at that time in history. One especially good theme throughout the book is that of misogyny and class in the 19th century which helps you really grasp what little opportunity there was for those born of the ‘inferior sex’ or on the wrong side of town.

On the other side in the city’s Old Town several young women have been found dead, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. Just before Raven joins the Simpson household, Evie - a prostitute who's become a friend of Raven - is found dead, her face and body hideously contorted and similar deaths in the poorest parts of Edinburgh have him believing these women may have been murdered. Raven begins to pick his way through the dark motives and powerful alliances that are concealing the truth.

As Dr Simpson treats patients from the richest to the poorest in Scotland's capital city, he and his colleagues carry out daring experiments. Meanwhile, Raven and Sarah have their own motive to look deeper into the city’s spate of suspicious deaths and find themselves forced into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh’s underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive. The couple, initially disliking each other, gradually share a mutual respect

This is an atmospheric and intriguing murder mystery set in Edinburgh during the mid 19th century. Raven is the apprentice to the obstetrician Dr Simpson who is keen to elevate his status in life, learn all that he can from his mentor and solve the mystery of the prostitutes death. He is an intriguing character, and I really enjoyed the tension between him and the housemaid Sarah, who has similar aspirations in life.
There is so much woven into the pages of this book; a woman's place in society, the seedy underside of Edinburgh, how medical breakthroughs were discovered, but never at the expense of the tense murder mystery that Raven and Sarah are determined to solve.
It's a great start to a new series and I'm really looking forward to reading future books from this writing team.

My thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Great historical debut for what promises to be an interesting husband/wife writing duo. Very atmospheric and captured the spirit and essence of the time/place very well indeed. Some dark moments alongside sparklingly good writing, and definitely one I'll be recommending.

Truly a history-lover's historical novel. "Parry" really reveled in the historical detail, especially medical detail, of Edinburgh in the 1840s and the life of Dr. James Young Simpson. The main character, Wil Raven, is deeply flawed but aware of his faults and seeking to amend them as he begins his medical career. Sarah Fisher is a remarkable character, a modern feminist and intellectual stuck in the wrong century. There are several plot points that are, well, less than believable, but those were easy to overlook, outshone by the quality of the characters and the writing about the medical issues that dominate their motivations. Dr. Simpson is greatly concerned with the suffering of patients and dedicated to finding anesthetics. And there is a lot of suffering. There are several grisly scenes, which made me flip the pages a little more quickly than perhaps I ought -- I was glad I wasn't listening to this one.

I admit that the book started out far to slow for me and the first few chapters did not raise high hopes. The characters have heavy Scottish accents in the first few and then the last few chapters, to hit us over the head with the setting, I suppose, but the accents are absent for much of the action, and the book is better for it. So there was what I felt an overuse of words like "wee" in the first few chapters. And I also noticed a strange doubling of a lot of descriptors -- rooms or persons described with two metaphors in the same sentence, double adjectives describing someone's tone. The style was bothering me as undisciplined, and then I looked up the book online and saw that it was written by a husband and wife team, which made me chuckle a bit, and I ceased to notice them deeper into the book. I can't quite say whether it stopped or I just stopped noticing.

So this one is a slow build. But it's a lovely read, with lots of early medical science, good folks and bad guys, a bit of romance and a bit of mystery. The mystery is not really the point of the novel (and I must say the guilty party seemed so from the beginning -- I would call him the Wickham character, identifying his type from the first book I read with such a man in my adolescence), so don't read it solely for that, but it adds some good direction to the story.

I got a copy to review from Net Galley.

The Way of All Flesh is a weird book, but I don't necessarily dislike weird. It's an unusual, deeply atmospheric story with a very nicely drawn out setting and engaging characters. The pace is quick and I was never bored as I raced towards the finish, eager to see how the story could end. I'll be happy to read more by this author in this future!

Excellent ripper like thriller but leavened with excellent historidal underpinnings and an examination of the history of medicine thrown in as well. This looks like it will be a series and I look forward to the next one. Highly recommended.

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.

THE WAY OF ALL FLESH finds Will Raven, a medical student, and Sarah Fisher, a housemaid, as a reluctant team sleuthing out horrendous murders of young women in 1847 Edinburgh. An extremely scary and well-written read that will have you reaching for your blankie before the last page is turned. 5/5

I received a complimentary copy from Canongate Books US through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheWayOfAllFlesh #NetGalley