An intriguing story of a young man, Will Raven, trying to forge a medical career in 19th century Edinburgh, an apprentice to an obstetrician whose housemaid Sarah could be a rival to Raven's position were it not for her unfortunate gender and low social status. Together they seek to find out what happened to the many who died in strangely similar circumstances, in a fresh and gritty, vivid historical crime novel.

Set in 19th Century Edinburgh This book follows the career of Will Raven as an apprentice to skilled obstetrician and Doctor James Simpson. However, all is not as it seems, and there is a darker side to the lives of the main characters as good and evil intermingle in this historical mystery. The characters are really well defined and grab the readers attention alongside the pacy narrative. The author really captures both sides of the city and as the reader I felt drawn into the time period and events. I really loved the ending and would love to read more from this author

Thanks to NetGalley and to Canongate Books for an advance copy of The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry.

This is the debut historical crime novel from the team behind Ambrose Parry, Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman - not a secret as there's a Q&A with them at the end of the book - of which there are more to follow.

Set in 1840s Edinburgh, when it was the city of medicine, science was making huge leaps but not without its mishaps along the way. The Way of All Flesh introduces medical apprentice Will Raven and housemaid Sarah Fisher with some famous names appearing alongside them.

There is a lot of historical and medical research in this story, to the extent that the authors seem to have packed as much as possible in, regardless of whether or not it was relevant. For example, Currar Bell and Jane Eyre are both mentioned at least three times, and the almost entire chapter on photography seemed to digress too. In fact, I would have wondered what this had to do with anything had a specific clue not been revealed, but I do think it could have been revealed less clumsily.

There is also what seems to be a cast of thousands, with several similar names used over and over again, including some that were just straight repetition - there were two Jessies and at least six James as well as Jarvis, John, Julia, Joao and Jane as well. And the book opened with an Evie and an Effie. It got to be quite confusing.

However, I found the book an excellent story, written as though it were written at the time, and I enjoyed getting to know the main characters.

4.5/5

I really enjoyed this book. The style of writing was easy to consume and had an old world flair to it. The setting was incredible, but I’m a little bias on that count because I have travelled to Edinburgh multiple times and I have walked the streets referenced in the book, so it gave it a little something extra for me.

I don’t think the mystery element was the strongest showing I’ve seen, but the author more than made up for it in the characters and story.

This is one I will be recommending to people who like historical fiction with a little bit of mystery. And I will definitely be purchasing my own copy - especially because of that gorgeous cover!

Thank you to Canongate Books and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this title to review!

Pub Date: 30th of August, 2018

The Way of All Flesh had a dramatic and engaging start. I loved the unique setting of a doctor's home in 19th century Edinburgh and found the whole read to be beautifully described and very atmospheric. The underlying mystery to be solved was fascinating, however, it quickly became only a minor part of the story. The plot fizzled out as the pace slowed and the main focus was on the medical developments of the time and the characters' own diversions. By the time the 'big reveal' happened, I'd lost interest. Unfortunately this was further compounded by my dislike of the main protagonist, Raven. The secondary protagonist, Sarah, had huge potential but was overshadowed by Raven. I'd have liked to read more about her!

Whilst I wouldn't recommend this for readers looking for fast-paced crime or mystery, it was beautifully written and the research behind the setting was evident. Recommended for fans of general historical fiction or drama novels.

I was hooked from the first word and this book kept me reading when I should have been doing a million other things.
A fast paced and gritty historical fiction sent in the Edinburgh of the 1840’s and based on actual events. The scene is set quickly and the characters are believable. The medical information was so interesting and not unwarranted. I can’t wait to read the next instalment.

A slightly gory, but interesting book. Really enjoyed reading this and the history surrounding medicine and childbirth in Edinburgh in the 18th Century. The mystery is also quite surprising!

What a trip to Victorian 19th century Edinburgh this is!
It’s alive, it’s bubbling, it’s atmospheric, it’s realistic and scary as hell! The medical procedures described are gruesome but realistic to the time period.

“The Way of All Flesh” is addictive and won’t let you rest, it even yells for MORE! Fact and fiction are cleverly intertwined and earns the attention of both gore and historical lovers.

Let me know if and when a part is coming: it will for sure be on my reading list!

I'm sorry - I'm abandoning this at 34%. It may be accurate about the history of medical care in Edinburgh in 1847, but the language is ridiculously anachronistic. I tried my best to ignore "...if he was made of chocolate would surely eat himself, were his appetites not so abstemious" - José Mourinho, presumably, time-travelling back to Edinburgh - but I choked at "As Raven's mother might have put it, he was wearing the clothes; the clothes weren't wearing him." No, Raven's mother wouldn't have put it like that, unless she'd been reading Vogue last time she was having her highlights done in the hairdresser's. Even a modern character would surely balk at such a cliché, anyway.

That, combined with the glacial speed of the plot, the utterly unrealistic behaviour and thought processes of Sarah, (especially the bathing the naked hero scene - come on! Seriously?), the constant banging on about the lowly status of women (we know already), and the unlikeableness of the supposed hero of the story, Raven, means I'm increasingly reluctant to drag myself through any more. I'm frightened I might reach a stage where Raven calls Sarah "hot" and uses hashtags in his love letters to her.

I won't be reviewing it on my blog but will be leaving the above paragraphs on Goodreads.

Set in Edinburgh of the 1840's this is a murder mystery, a historical look at the early stages of the quest for anaesthesia and a reflection of the very different worlds of the rich & poor in this city.

Will Raven is a penniless young man who has been lucky enough to gain a position of medical apprentice to the famous Dr Simpson whose are of expertise is childbirth. Before taking up his post he was forced to borrow money to try & help a friend & is in fear of his life every time he goes into the more lowly part of the city.

Sarah is a housemaid. She is also extremely intelligent and extremely frustrated that because he is female and a lowly servant she is not allowed to further her education.

Dr Simpson's household entertains many medical men. A regular after dinner activity is trying out various potions in an attempt to discover a better way of sedating patients.

When a second young woman ( a friend of Sarah's) dies in suspicious circumstances Will sees a connection to another death & is determined to find out what happened to them. Sarah soon finds herself swept along in an attempt to help Will- even though she initially doesn't like or trust him.

This book is brilliantly written. The atmosphere of the city is captured in its richness & its squalor. The characters are interesting & the medical details, often quite graphic, add to the authenticity. I was delighted to find that this is the start of a series- can't wait for the next one!

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I loved this book. It immediately drew you in to Edinburgh in the 1800's where medical history was being made. The characters were really good and the storyline so interesting. I struggled a bit with the medical terms of some of the story but felt that it needed to be there as it was a strong part of it. A great book and very enjoyable. Would thoroughly recommend

Given that this has been getting rave reviews, I think I must have been reading a different book to everyone else. While I love historical fiction, especially set in Victorian times, and the prose does reflect the era, I found this turgid and difficult to get through, despite the exciting premise. The characters did absolutely nothing for me, and neither did the medical details.

I wish I could have loved this. Unfortunately, it was far too boring for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Ambrose Parry is the writing partnership of Chris Brookmyre (one of my very favourite authors) and his wife. He is an expert at writing thrillers, she has an expert knowledge of the history of medicine. Together they have produced this book, the first in a series about Will Raven (who is a doctor apprenticed to Edinburgh obstetrician Dr Simpson - an actual historical character) and Dr Simpson's housemaid Sarah. Set to a background of Edinburgh society and the invention of chloroform, the plot concerns a series of gruesome deaths of young girls, but this book is about so much more than that. The medical descriptions were fascinating, the characters really well drawn, and by the end I was reluctant to leave their company and their world. Although this is very different to Brookmyre's usual books, I loved it and I cannot wait to read the next in the series.

I knew as soon as I began reading The Way of All Flesh that I was going to enjoy it – it’s historical crime fiction at its very best.

Full of atmosphere and historical detail, I could easily believe I was there in Edinburgh in 1847 as Dr James Young Simpson, a professor of midwifery, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. It combines fact and fiction most successfully, the social scene, historical and medical facts slotting perfectly into the plot.

It begins with the death of Evie, a prostitute in Edinburgh’s Old Town, found by Will Raven, a young medical student about to start his apprenticeship with Dr Simpson. Will, Evie’s friend is suspicious, the place was reeking of drink and Evie’s body was in a state of contortion. He flees the scene, not wanting to be implicated in her death. There is a mystery surrounding Will – he has a past that he wants to conceal, and he is in trouble with a couple of villains who beat him, slashing his face when he is unable to repay his debt to a moneylender.

Will is anxious to fit in with the more genteel society of the New Town, where Dr Simpson has his surgery, a place where people from all levels of society congregated – the poor who attended his clinics, the wealthy who also wanted treatment, and the medical students and colleagues experimenting with new drugs and medical techniques. When Will comes across similar deaths during his work with Dr Simpson he is determined to find out who is responsible – was it the same person who had killed Evie?

Sarah, Dr Simpson’s housemaid is an ambitious and enterprising young woman who would love to have a career in medicine just like the male medical students. Initially she dislikes Will, but eventually they join forces to uncover the killer in the depths of Edinburgh’s dark underworld . Through Sarah’s eyes we see the frustrations and limitations that all women experienced and through Will’s eyes we see the grim realities and danger that women at all levels of society faced with childbirth and unwanted pregnancies, and the brutally primitive state of the medicine of the period. The medical scenes are indeed gruesome and the attitudes of some of the clergy with their opposition to the use of anaesthetics is deplorable. The authors have combined their specialities to provide a compelling murder mystery interwoven with the exciting discovery of chloroform and how it transformed surgery.

This is without doubt an impressive and well written book that gripped me throughout – definitely one of the best books that I’ve read so far this year.

And I am so pleased that this is not the end of Will as Chris and his wife, Marisa are planning more novels revealing the development of medicine and the part that the Simpson household played. Also, I see that Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch production company has secured the TV rights to The Way of All Flesh.

Thank you to Canongate Books and NetGalley for my copy of this book for review.

Will Raven is in debt to an unsavoury character but about to start a new life as an apprentice to Dr Simpson. It's a chance for a new beginning but soon he's embroiled in investigating the deaths of Young women. Eventually teaming up with Sarah a young housemaid, they attempt to learn the truth but will it cost them their lives.

This sounded interesting but wasn't sure when I first started the book but within a few chapters I was hooked and wanting to know more. The plot is slower than most but builds up well. The ending was different but very clever. I liked how they resolved the situation with the killer. I also enjoyed the secret of Will's history though I figured much of it out. I also liked the developing relationship between him and Sarah. I'm hoping there will be more stories to follow.

Will is not your typical lead but he's interesting and very resourceful. He's flawed but at the same time determined to better himself and help others. Sarah was a great addition to the story too and added depth to Will.

The murder of a prostitute is always a promising way start a book. The body is discovered by a medical student, Will Raven, who is the next day to become the apprentice of an esteemed midwife, Dr James Young Simpson. Raven had strong feelings for the victim, and is keen to discover what happened to her, and why.

The female lead, Sarah, is Dr Simpson's housemaid, but she has much higher aspirations and abilities. She has questions about almost everything and everyone, and by sheer will and determination she will likely get some answers.

The story is set in Edinburgh, in the winter of 1847. At this time there was much experimentation and development taking place in the medical community. The book is partially based around true events which took place, and around Dr Simpson himself and his household. This is clevely intertwined with fictional characters and a gritty tale of murder and deception. It has been written by two people using one pseudonym - an author of fiction and an expert on the medical and historical side of things, and the combination works extremely well.

At times it seems like a somewhat jovial period drama, such as "Call The Midwife" or "Downton Abbey". At other times it is much more in the vein of "Peaky Blinders" and "Ripper Street", full of the horrors of the age and violence. Again, the two threads are woven together beautifully and both shine through, although murder and intrigue are definitely at the forefront, as opposed to taking tea in the parlour.

There are slower times in the book, but by the end it is hurtling along at an exciting pace. It is very character driven, even though it is also about the medicine and doctors of the time. There are many twists and sudden surprises which made it impossible to predict how it would end. And it was all written in a very elegant and old fashioned style, which transports the reader back to the nineteenth century.

Aside from being a fantastic story, this book is also very interesting in terms of what treatments and practices were used at the time by doctors and surgeons, and also the knowledge and opinions within the medical community. It also considers the role of women, and the contrast between the rich and poor living in Edinburgh at the time.

This is overall a great book, interesting from a historical point of view and also a great murder mystery.

This book is a joint venture of Chris Brookmyre (established novelist) and his wife Marisa Haetzman, and I understand that it is intended to be the first in a series featuring central characters Will and Sarah.
The setting is Edinburgh in 1847, and the city is split into two very different halves. Will Raven has spent the last several years growing up and studying in the poverty stricken and seedy Old Town, and now takes up a medical apprenticeship in midwifery under the famous obstetrician Dr Simpson, moving to live under his roof in the respectable and affluent New Town just over the river. Here he meets housemaid Sarah who, despite it being a man's world, is secretly keen to study sciences and healing to better herself if possible. Will also has secrets he wants to keep, in his case rather murky ones from his past. Despite a disliking of each other at first, together they are drawn into investigating a series of suspicious deaths of young women in the town. There are plenty of likely suspects. And are some doctors so keen to make breakthroughs that they will do so at any cost?
I found the book to be rather a slow burner at first (there's a wealth of information and description of life on both sides of the city) until at least halfway through when the pace picked up a little and then even more so to an exciting finish. It is very descriptive, particularly of new scientific advances in medicine and also of rather gory scenes of surgery and childbirth gone wrong.
The scene and main characters having now been established, I am looking forward to further stories in this series. Well worth a read if you enjoy murder mystery with an historical flavour.

The Way of All Flesh features real-life medical pioneers, most notably James Young Simpson, in whose house its two main characters and amateur detectives live and work. And, while the latter may be fictional, they both feel as if they could have existed. Their pairing gives the investigation access to wider society than either would have alone and the book’s all the richer for that.

Will Raven is Simpson’s latest medical apprentice and Sarah Fisher his housemaid, who assists at some of the clinics run out of Simpson’s house. They’re both looking to better themselves but, as Sarah is all too aware, it’s easier for Raven to do so than it is for her. Not only does her position in the household seem precarious but she would suffer more from its loss thanks to her sex and status.

Ambrose Parry uses Raven and Sarah’s differing experience of the city and its society to explore the Edinburgh of The Way of All Flesh. Just as Raven and Sarah remain wary of each other, this often feels as if it’s not one but two cities rubbing along together, not always happily either. There are the physical boundaries of the New Town and the Old Town, the port and the centre, the university and the closes, along with others such as progress and stagnation, science and exploitation, doing no harm and doing whatever it takes to get ahead, rich and poor, male and female, and within those every degree from gentleman and lady to labourer and maid, from property owner to tenement dweller, and from marriageable prospect to prostitute.

Ambrose Parry combines this rich medical history, real life characters with fictional, and a city divided but alive with possibility and intrigue in The Way of All Flesh. The result is a heady mix of charismatic characters who I happily championed and want to meet again, a devious and disturbing mystery, nocturnal call-outs and encounters with henchmen, humble beginnings and wretched ends, unrepentant reprobates and opportunistic moneylenders, and reckless carriage rides. Take a first dose of this vibrant new historical crime fiction today; the only likely side effect is that you’ll soon crave the next fix.

(3.5 stars) This historical novel set in Edinburgh in 1847 has one of the best opening paragraphs I’ve come across in a while. It immediately sets the tone: realistic, sly, and somewhat seedy. If the title sounds familiar, it’s because it’s borrowed from Samuel Butler’s gloomy 1903 meditation on sin and salvation in several generations of a Victorian family. I remember trudging through it on a weekend break to Strasbourg during my year abroad.

Parry (a pseudonym for husband–wife duo Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman) uses the allusion to highlight the hidden sins of the Victorian period and hint at the fleshy concerns of their book, which contains somewhat gruesome scenes of childbirth and surgery. Ether and chloroform were recent introductions and many were still apprehensive about them or even opposed to their use on religious grounds, as Haetzman, a consultant anesthetist, learned while researching for her Master’s degree in the History of Medicine.

Into this milieu enters Will Raven, the new apprentice to Dr. Simpson, a professor of midwifery. Will is troubled by the recent loss of his friend Evie Lawson, the dead prostitute of the first paragraph, and wonders if she could have been poisoned by some bad moonshine. Only as he hears rumors about a local abortionist – no better than a serial killer – who’s been giving women quack pills and potions, followed by rudimentary operations that leave them to die of peritonitis, does he begin to wonder if Evie could have been pregnant when she died.

The novel peppers in lots of period slang and details about homeopathy, phrenology and early photography. Best of all, it has a surprise heroine: the Simpsons’ maid, Sarah Fisher, who keeps shaming Will with her practical medical know-how and ends up being something of a sidekick in his investigations. She wants to work as a druggist’s assistant, but the druggist insists that only a man can do the job. Meanwhile, Dr. Simpson recognizes that the housemaid’s role is rather a waste of Sarah’s talents and expresses his hope that she’ll seek to be part of a widespread change for women.

The Way of All Flesh is sure to appeal to readers of Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White and Steven Price’s By Gaslight. It’s not quite as rewarding as the former, but the length and style make it significantly more engaging than the latter. It also serves as a good fictional companion to Lindsey Fitzharris’s The Butchering Art; for that reason, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it appear on next year’s Wellcome Book Prize longlist.

Favorite lines:

“That was Edinburgh for you: public decorum and private sin, city of a thousand secret selves.”

“‘Simpson likes to think of medicine as more than pure science,’ [Raven] countered. ‘There must also be empathy, concern, a human connection.’ ‘I suggest that both elements are required,’ offered Henry. ‘Scientific principles married to creativity. Science and art.’ If it is an art, it is at times a dark one, Raven thought, though he chose to keep this observation to himself.”

This book was brought further into life for me as I was up in Edinburgh last week on holiday so it seemed the perfect time to bring it forward to the top of my skyscraper of a TBR pile!! And also, today is publication day for this gem of a book 🥂

Having done some of the touristy things we went and saw the Edinburgh Dungeons and The Real Mary King’s Close tour to see the rooms, streets and spaces underneath the famous Royal Mile, and Edinburgh’s only preserved 17th century street, so even though that was 2 centuries further back in time to when this novel is set it still went a massive way to bringing the past even further into my cozy reading chair!!

Set in 1840’s Edinburgh, when Edinburgh led the world in the field of medicine, in both medical practices and procedures and also pioneering drugs and anaesthetics.

As well as being a historical medical thriller it also brings to life Dr Simpson who was a real, pioneering figure of the time. Wanting to find better drugs and anaesthetics for his patients we get some great scenes of the research done by these medical practitioners of old which included nights spent with some of the city’s top surgeons sitting round the dinner table sampling various substances looking to find the perfect anaesthetic!!

Dr Simpson makes his discovery of chloroform following some of these sampling sessions 😂

The plot is simply brilliant full of twists and turns, and some great characters, especially Sarah and Raven. They stole the show for me. Will Raven is a young medical student recently apprenticed to Dr Simpson and Sarah, a housemaid for Dr Simpson who has her own ambitions to work in medicine herself, despite their being little opportunity to do so for those born the ‘inferior sex’ as well as her social status.

When a couple of young women are found dead in similar suspicious circumstances, Sarah and Raven take it upon themselves to investigate the deaths as they both fear a more unscrupulous doctor operating illegally and naturally their investigations lead them into a whole host of trouble!

The medical reality in 1847 is horrifically compelling with some fairly narly procedures described throughout the book but they haven’t just been thrown in for a gross out factor, they serve a purpose and bring the story further to life.

Blending a historical tale with an intriguing mystery and even a little splash of romance this book really does have something for everyone.

If you are a fan of historical fiction or maybe interested in medical procedures and their histories you really don’t want to miss this book. I will go as far as to say that this is by far, hands down, the best historical fiction book you will read this year!!

And now for the cherry on top of the cake – It’s the first in a new series 😍 The only downside to that is the wait for the sequel to hit the shelves 😭

I’m already looking forward to it and can’t wait!!

And if you need an even bigger cherry on top to read this book, well apparently there are already rumours flying around that it is set to become a tv series starring Benedict Cumberbatch!! 🙀