Dr Will Raven returns to practise medicine in Edinburgh with Sir James Simpson to discover that much has changed above and below stairs at 52 Queen Street. Simpson's reputation is under attack and Raven, keen to preserve and promote his own, reluctantly joins forces with his colleague Sarah, to clear Simpson's name. But, in uncovering the truth, they discover something much darker and altogether more dangerous.

This is the second novel from Ambrose Parry about Will and Sarah and once again it combines historical figures with fictional ones to great effect. There are several strands to the plot – the threat to Simpson's reputation, the new relationship that must be negotiated between Will and Sarah, Raven's past that continues to haunt him … and new characters with their own agendas and the return of some old characters with theirs!

Having so many strands meant that the story ripped along at a good pace with red herrings, humour, historical comment, heart-ache and a growing sense of peril as the net closes in and the villain is exposed – all in all, another exciting romp through the back streets and broad thoroughfares of old Edinburgh in the company of two great characters.

Can't wait for Book 3!

I adore historical crime fiction so I jumped at the chance to read this on Netgalley. I wish I had read the first book in the series though as it probably would have given me more background on the characters. However, I still really enjoyed this book and I fell in love with the writing style and the historical setting; it was interesting to read a book set in historical Edinburgh rather than London. I also enjoyed learning about all the medical practices and ideas of the time.

The book was a nice mix of adventure, thriller, detective story and romance and I feel that the author really researched the setting and the historical period and this shone through in the writing. I will definitely read the first book in the series and any more that the author writes.

Edinburgh, 1850
It's been three years since Will Raven first started work with Dr Simpson. Now back from his travels in Europe, and a doctor, Will is looking forward to working again with Simpson and to making his name in medicine, but ambivalent about seeing Sarah again.

He arrives back in Edinburgh to find that much has changed in the Simpson household, and not all to the good. There is a whispering smear campaign against Simpson, money is going missing from the household accounts and there are unexplained deaths in Edinburgh once more. Will is convinced that it is an as yet unidentified malady, one that he can claim as his own discovery and make his name in the medical world. But Sarah isn't so sure; yes, there is a common link to all the deaths but it isn't a symptom it's a person...

You don't need to have read Parry's first Will Raven novel, The Way of All Flesh, to enjoy The Art of Dying but it will help you understand the characters' back stories much better if you do and appreciate the changes in their circumstances.

I enjoyed The Art of Dying as much as the first Parry novel. However, my one quibble is that there were quite a few sub-plots, some of which were not resolved. I assume these will be carried into the next novel, but they distracted from the main story line rather than added to it, in my opinion.

. It is atmospheric, well-paced and the characters are well-rounded. Definitely a good read!

This is a wonderful book. Part history, part novel, all Edinburgh. I benefited from the city being my second home for many years, and from the city centre being relatively unchanged in the past 200 or so years.
The port of Leith is no longer busy with vessels but the housing in Trinity, Portobello and the New Town remain.
As for Edinburgh Old Town...the tenements now house mainly students and the Lawnmarket, Cowgate etc no longer stink of urine and faeces...well, not to the same extent.
Scotland and advances in medicine go hand in hand. Reading of what could have been everyday life during the 1800s was a pleasure. As was the beginning of women charting their own course (although Mary was a wee bit too zealous). I would have loved to read what road Sarah took.
I suppose this book would be shelved as Historical fiction medical murder mystery. Or just Good.

This is a really good sequel. I also think it would work well as a standalone. There is plenty of action set in beautiful Edinburgh. It is a great account of how medicine was practiced in the 1800s. I hope there are more books to come. Raven and Sarah are interesting characters to read about.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Having enjoyed “The Way of all Flesh” hugely, I could not wait to get back to the world of Raven Wilberforce, the young Edinburgh surgeon. The plot is set two years after the first book with Raven just coming back from a European tour to start as an assistant of the famous Edinburgh surgeon Dr Simpson to whom he had been apprenticed. The doctor’s household is still as busy and chaotic and still deeply involved in propagating chloroform as a safe anaesthetic in surgery. To Raven’s dismay, his former sleuthing partner, Sarah Fisher, housemaid-turned-nurse, is now married to Dr Archie Banks. As dark clouds gather over the reputation of Simpson, Raven’s loyalty and values are rigourously tested.
As before, several plot threads are interwoven beautifully, leaving the reader dangling for just the right amount of time, revealing tantalsing snippets of information. Precise research into the medical scene of Edinburgh makes this story both informative and entertaining - another thoroughly cracking read crafted by Brookmyre and Haetzman!
PS: Only niggly bit: For authenticity’s sake, the German place names could have done with a few correct umlauts (Königstrasse, Jägerstrasse)

* I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *

Ambrose Parry returns with a second book set in Victorian Edinburgh during its medical and scientific revolution. Where the first book centred around Sir James Young Simpson (and others!) search for the perfect anaesthetic, this book focuses more on the man and his reputation. Edinburgh is still a thriving centre of medical science, and reputation is everything. The book starts with Simpson's reputation being besmirched by rivals and former colleagues, looking to suggest negligence. Will Raven and Sarah Fisher team up again to gradually peel away at the facts underlying the case in question and reveal some disturbing trends.

While the plot itself, and its numerous twists and turns, is not exactly ground-breaking, it is excellently told, with clues scattered here, there and everywhere. And to weave this tale around actual historic events and cases really appeals to my mind.

This book, and its predecessor, is one of the most immersive books I have read in a long time. The reader really gets to feel as if they are in Victorian era Edinburgh. Admittedly, I read a fair part of this book while commuting to work in Edinburgh (indeed my children were all born in the Sir James Young Simpson maternity unit of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary), but I feel the reader with less connection to the city would still get that same feeling.

There is again an underlying message of the treatment of women during those times (and indeed today), both how they are treated in the household and society and also their opportunities for a career and to explore their skills. Sarah Fisher is a strong female character who tolerates her place in society but yearns to break through the glass ceiling, proving her worth to all and sundry as she goes.

In contrast, Will Raven is somewhat spineless in this regard. He sees the issues with society but doesn't do much to act on it. Indeed, he starts the book having run away from Edinburgh and his chances of a relationship with a mere housekeeper, for fear of his heart dooming his medical career. Raven does get some amount of development, both in terms of his medical career, and also in terms of becoming the Victorian equivalent of "woke".

Parry's prose is fantastic and she (they?) truly allow the reader to feel the story unfold around them.

An utterly wonderful book with some interesting history lessons and important messages about the past that should help us build a fairer society today.

Having read the first book of this series last year, I am pleased to discover volume 2 has lost none of its charm, style and wit.

I still delight in all aspects of this series with the men still acting as pompous know-it-alls whilst they frequently get tripped up by the women - both the good and the bad women. Will Raven is still the man trapped between doing what he sees as right (and which is often wrong), Dr Simpson sails on resplendent in his own inimitable fashion and the supporting characters are still delightfully understated.

Go treat yourself to a most enjoyable read, starting with The Way of All Flesh, to discover the raison d'être of all the characters.

Before I get into this review, I just want to note that this is the second book in a series – the first being The Way of All Flesh (one of my absolute favourites) – but I shall try and keep this review as spoiler-free as possible for both of the books in the series so far.

Something about a historical mystery set in the medical sphere of 19th century Edinburgh really appeals to me, and The Art of Dying didn’t disappoint. We predominantly follow the perspectives of two characters – Will and Sarah – as they both become increasingly involved in experimental medicine and the sometimes unfortunate and dark consequences. If I’m comparing this second book to the first, I did note that it felt as though there were fewer lengthy descriptions about medical procedures. Any procedures were described, but not in painstaking details and as someone who generally loses interest in lengthy descriptions I appreciated that the action kept moving at a good pace.

Generally speaking the characters were as before, but with a few developments since the end of the first book. Will Raven has become an established doctor, and is perhaps more aware of his reputation than before which definitely plays into the plot. However, a lot of the narration following Will’s perspective felt a little repetitive towards the beginning of the novel and whilst it did have something of a purpose, it did begin to get a little irritating and something I was aware of whilst reading. Sarah’s position has also changed since the end of The Way of All Flesh; I won’t go into it (because of spoilers) but it has made room for some interesting developments in her character.

There was an additional perspective added of an initially unnamed character and to begin with I wasn’t completely on board. However, the further into the plot I got, the more I appreciated what this additional narration added to the characterisation of the core antagonist. Through these additional chapters, the antagonist felt genuinely unsettling without being heavy-handed or too obvious.

The plot felt a little too different from the first book, focusing on the personal lives and relationships of Will and Sarah; I’m not sure whether I am totally on board with that. I feel that it was treading a fine line of taking the focus away from the core plot of 19th century medicine and murders which is the appeal of this series for me. Additionally some of the developments with regards to the character’s personal lives were a little predictable and I saw them coming, but I didn’t find that disappointing or annoying. In fact, I think its fair to say I found myself getting a little invested in this plot, more than I usually do.

Overall, The Art of Dying was a fantastic sequel, but there was something missing. I just didn’t find myself getting invested in the plot as much as before. Perhaps a little too much time was dedicated to the relationships between the various characters which took the focus away from the core mystery plot. If I’m honest, the way in which the book left off I’m not sure whether I will continue if there are anymore books coming. Despite the small things which impeded my enjoyment, it was a good read and I’m glad I have read it; definitely worth the read if you enjoyed the first book.

Following on from last year’s The Way of All Flesh, this is the second outing by the writing duo of Dr. Marisa Haetzman and Christopher Brookmyre under the pen-name of Ambrose Parry, and it’s at least as good as their first.

The novel opens three years after the first, with Will Raven gallivanting around Europe with his friend Henry as part of an educational tour. Following a foiled robbery in the streets of Berlin, Raven returns to Edinburgh expecting to more-or-less pick up his life where he left off. Unfortunately, things have changed more than he could have expected, with Sarah having married in his absence and Professor Simpson facing serious allegations of malpractice that could lead to the loss of his great reputation.

Amidst the drama of Raven’s attempts to rebuild his life and Sarah’s attempts to clear the Professor’s good name, a killer works in the shadows, cleverly hiding the evidence of their macabre occupation. In brief first-person interludes we are shown that the killer in question is a woman, and one born to low status at that, but because she hides her tracks so well it takes half of the narrative before either of the main protagonists even come close to suspecting anything other than innocent answers to the mystery surrounding the sudden spate of deaths they have uncovered.

As with the first novel, this one works best when it’s showing us the details, the little things that make Sarah and Will’s actions so frustratingly understandable. Even though we as the reader know there’s murder afoot, we’re dragged along by the two of them almost stumbling from one revelation to the next, and when they finally do put the pieces together and figure out what’s going on you can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, that relief is only short-lived, as there’s still a good third or so of the book to go before they catch the culprit, and there are more than enough setbacks before the end of the story to keep the reader going.

It has to be said that this book is somewhat darker than the first. The stakes for both of the main characters become much more personal in this one, with both of them having to deal with some pretty heavy situations at various points throughout. I don’t want to give too much away but you might want to make sure you have a hanky or two at hand before you sit down to read this one.

As I mention at the top of this review, I’d say this one is at least as good as the first, perhaps even just a touch better. The structure and pacing are different enough from the first to keep you on the edge of your seat for a lot of the book, and once again the attention to historical detail is superlative, with the core plot of the novel being loosely based on real events from the time, albeit geographically transplanted for the sake of the story. I’m not quite ready to give it four and a half stars, but it’s not far off. If there’s a third one coming along next year then I’ll definitely be adding it to my pre-order list as soon as it appears.

This is the second book in the series by Ambrose Parry about Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. I read The Way of All Flesh last year and loved it, so was really looking forward to reading this, and I was not disappointed! A few years have passed since the events of the previous book, and Will is now a fully qualified doctor, who has been living abroad in the intervening time. Sarah has moved on too, and when Will returns to Edinburgh it is to find that she is no longer the poor housemaid that he left behind. However, once again they find themselves working together, this time to clear the name of their mentor, Dr Simpson, who has been wrongly accused of causing the death of one of his patients. As their investigations progress, they uncover evil beyond belief, and find themselves in danger from a protaganist for whom murder appears to be a sport.
I have to confess to loving anything written by Chris Brookmyre, he is one of my favourite authors, and this series written in collaboration with his wife meets all my expectations of his work. I cannot wait for the next one!

Full review to follow.

Another brilliant and chilling case featuring Will Raven and Sarah. Set two years after the first book everything has changed and Will’s return to Edinburgh is not all he expected it to be.

I love the blend of medical fact and medical fiction and they way the authors have brought to life the difficulties of medicine in the early days of chloroform and medical developments. The story sees the pair trying hard to prove Dr Simpson’s innocence against a case of medical negligence as well as looking into what could be an early case of an angel of mercy. Only in this case the victims have no need for release.

Full of mystery, fabulous characters and an undeniable chemistry between the two lead characters I loved delving back into their world. It’s very much a mans world still but Sarah holds her own, and with that ending I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Ambrose Parry's first book, The Way of All Flesh, introduced a terrific crime investigation team with a lot of potential, creating or recreating a successful and somewhat original blend of Victorian Gothic crime thriller and historical medical drama. Its depiction of crime on the backstreets of Edinburgh in the mid-19th century was consequently a little dark and grim, but there was a glimmer of light breaking through in the medical developments around anesthetics and hygiene, two things that were badly needed in Edinburgh, progressed by the real-life eminent physician Professor Simpson and his colleagues around this time.

Also progressing around this time, but perhaps not quite so rapidly, was the question of the treatment and attitudes towards women and women's rights. Dr Simpson's maid Sarah Fisher's knowledge of the issues faced by women, her own observations working with Dr Simpson in an unofficial nursing capacity gaining medical experience, would prove instrumental in helping Dr Simpson's new apprentice Will Raven solve a series of grim murders of women in those grim backstreets. The idea of a woman, from a working class background, being able to gain a medical qualification however are still remote.

It's now three years since the events of the first book teamed Will Raven up with Sarah Fisher and things have moved on in both of their lives, drawing them apart when there almost seemed to be a spark of something between them. Will has been studying abroad in Europe - and it hasn't been without incident - returning to Edinburgh as a qualified doctor to take up the post of assistant to Professor Simpson, his former, tutor, mentor and benefactor. He is intrigued to see how things rest now between him and Sarah, but is shocked to find that her personal circumstances have changed in the intervening years, which have also not been without incident.

Nonetheless, Sarah and Will are drawn together again to look into a number of matters that affect the Simpson household. One is the matter of missing money that can't be accounted for in the doctor's books, another is an attack on Simpson's reputation by some rivals in the medical field, but they soon find themselves also looking into a number of suspicious deaths of families being afflicted by some unknown disease. Questions relating to both the treatment of women and medical developments come to the fore again in The Art of Dying, this time with the addition of the suspicion - one confirmed by first-person accounts - that the serial killer this time is a woman, and worse, probably a nurse.

Without getting too modern in its outlook, The Art of Dying does touch upon contemporary issues relating to women that persist in our society today, highlighting attitudes and behaviours developed in the past that we are still to a large extent tied to today. Sarah's condition determines this to a large extent in the barriers that prevent her from becoming a doctor, having no say in the direction of her life, but the circumstances of the 'nurse' also presents another side of issues affecting those who are born into life traps of poverty, lack of opportunities, prejudice and injustice, and the book again brilliantly ties this into how this can give rise to crime.

That's unquestionably down to the fact that the collaboration - 'Ambrose Parry' being a pseudonym for a writing team comprising of author Chris Brookmyre and medical historian Marisa Haetzman - is a successful one that works brilliantly in blending their respective skills and knowledge into a seamless thriller. All those qualities that were evident in The Way of All Flesh - where social attitudes, poverty and crime interact - are again in place in The Art of Dying, and it's a marvellous crime thriller. More than this however, there's great attention paid to Raven and Sarah, to their respective characters and relationships, and to the progress each makes. These are not stock standstill characters thrown at a crime investigation, but ones who develop with the times and there's as much intrigue in their lives and relationships - and considerable potential - as there is in this period medical crime genre that Ambrose Parry has established.

A superb second writing effort from the combined writing force that makes up Ambrose Parry.

Having given The Way of All Flesh five stars when I read that, I'm delighted to have enjoyed The Art of Dying just as much.

Based on historical truths and characters, a series of deaths seem suspicious. Will Raven and Sarah Fisher are back, investigating the background to events, and finding themselves also caught up in danger. Gripping and un-putdownable. Read it!

This sequel did not disappoint. I finished reading it today whilst through in Edinburgh for the day. It's easy to depict the characters in Victorian Edinburgh and the husband/wife duo under the name of Parry weave an unputdownable plot. Full of character development, social commentary and nail biting peril. I loved it every bit as much as the first in the series if not more. I can only hope this is not the last we will hear of Will and Sarah!
Thank you to Netgalley and Canongate books for my ARC.

This is the second instalment of this excellent series from Ambrose Parry. (The husband and wife team of Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman.)

Victorian Edinburgh and Will Raven returns from a year abroad, continuing his studies and broadening his horizons.
Much has changed in the past year, most notably with Sarah. Wills mentor Dr Simpson is also having problems, both domestically and professionally.
Will dives into his role as assistant to Dr Simpson and a full workload keeps him busy.
Sarah tries to enlist Ravens help in investigating the complaints against Simpson, he is initially reluctant to get involved but eventually comes on board.
During their investigations they stumble across what looks like a new disease that's killing people around Edinburgh.
As they delve deeper, Sarah is coming to believe that it's something altogether darker.

This is every bit as good as the first instalment in the series. The characters are engaging and very likeable. There is considerable growth in all the main characters from book one and plenty of room for more ahead.

I'm already looking forward to the next one.

This is brilliant follow up to the Way of All Flesh by husband and wife writing team Ambrose Parry. Will Raven has been broadening his medical experience abroad and returns to take up a position under his old mentor, Dr Simpson. Things are not as he expects however. The woman he rejected as unsuitable for a man wishing to make a name for himself in medicine is no longer a housemaid and has moved on. Sarah is now assisting Dr Simpson in his medical practice and Will realises how much he has lost. The pair are forced to team up when the death of a patient is used by jealous medical rivals to impugn his reputation. This is fast becoming my favourite series of historical medical mysteries. I love how the authors weave in threads of history, attitudes and mores of the time and set it so well against the leading base fort medical learning that Edinburgh was in the Victorian era. Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.

Will Raven and Sarah Fisher return in Ambrose Parry’s second visit to 19th Century Edinburgh. Will returns from his travels in Europe to take up the position of Assistant to Dr Simpson. He is under the assumption that Sarah will still be a member of the Simpson household and is dismayed when he finds that that is not the case. However, they are once again thrown together to not only restore Dr Simpson’s reputation but to also solve a spate of deaths that at first seem natural. I so enjoyed the ‘The Way of All Flesh’ that I was a little anxious that Ambrose Parry, the husband and wife writing team, might not be able to deliver a similarly enjoyable follow-up. How wrong I was. This instalment equally captures an atmospheric and intense Victorian Edinburgh, whether in the tenements of the poor or the splendour of the well off. The reader is also given a glimpse into the hospitals and medical practices of the day. Blending fiction effortlessly with real characters and real events have proved to be Ambrose Parry’s forte and I for one am really looking forward to what happens next.

I read first book in this series, and it's very engaging! Apprentice doctor Raven wants to progress, despite rough background and intelligent house maid Sarah hopes to advance medical knowledge and be admitted to real medical circle in this historical thriller .. really, crime story, because there are mysterious murders happening and we hear the murderer talking to us .. twists and turns right up to the end. There is some distancing in the writing when we hear reports but it's v exciting .. really great value!

We return to Victorian era Edinburgh with Ambrose Parry, aka the husband and wife writers, Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman, in this superb sequel to The Way of All Flesh. Will Raven has been expanding his horizons in Europe, increasing his medical knowledge and experience in Paris, Vienna, Leipzig and in Berlin where he and Henry are seriously assaulted at night. Now a qualified medic, he is looking forward to returning to Edinburgh and Sarah Fisher, as he accepts a position as assistant to his mentor, Dr James Young Simpson, much lauded after his discovery of the medical applications of chloroform. He expects nothing to have changed but he is to be rudely surprised, the biggest shock that Sarah is no longer a housemaid, but assisting Simpson, no longer living at the house, and has moved on from Will. Even though he had judged Sarah as an unsuitable woman for a man looking to secure a career as an established doctor, he is bereft at the loss of Sarah.

Simpson's reputation is being tarnished by some in the profession, blaming him for the death of a patient. Sarah wants Will to help her to challenge those impugning Simpson's reputation but Will refuses initially, not wanting to endanger his career. In the city, swathes of patients are dying at the hands of a mass murderer, with not a suspicion being raised. At first, Will labours under the misapprehension that a new malady is the source of the deaths but it is Sarah who begins to have the first inkling of the more horrifying truth, but an ambitious Will refuses to grant any credence to her theory. Sarah is facing challenging circumstances in her personal life, and a courageous, independent, dying female patient opens her eyes to the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, equality for women, as she still dreams of training as a doctor. The conservative medical establishment is riddled with jealousies, rivalries, seething ambitious men, and slow to accept innovatory new practices, whilst refusing to countenance any thoughts of women becoming doctors. Will slowly begins to become aware that he is robbing himself of the life he ought to have if he lets his fears hold him back.

In an atmospheric narrative, Edinburgh itself holds centre stage as a main character, with its class distinctions and inequalities, the squalid conditions and dangers faced by the poor, the dark criminal underbelly, policing, the position of women, and the state of medical knowledge and practices of the era. The authors engage in skilful character development when it comes to both Will and Sarah, both of whom face major challenges in their lives, with major shifts in the way they think, for Sarah as she begins to envisage a future that she never would have entertained before and Will understanding that he should accept all that he is, as urged by Sarah and Gabriela. This is excellent and intelligent historical fiction, so well written, impressively researched with its rich authentic details and real life characters from the time, and above all else, it is such a gripping read. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.