Name: The Way of All Flesh
ISBN: 9781786893789

Ambrose Parry

A vivid and gripping historical crime novel set in 19th century Edinburgh, from husband-and-wife writing team Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman

The Way of All Flesh

I thought it was quite long and some passages were just boring that interrupted my reading flow 

Hanna 

Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder. Young women are being discovered dead across the Old Town, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. In the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant and renowned Dr Simpson. Simpson's patients range from the richest to the poorest of this divided city. His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia. It is here that Raven meets housemaid Sarah Fisher, who recognises trouble when she sees it and takes an immediate dislike to him. She has all of his intelligence but none of his privileges, in particular his medical education. With each having their own motive to look deeper into these deaths, Raven and Sarah find themselves propelled headlong into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh's underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive.

A Novel

Alice Belle

It's meh. I had had it for a whole year on my TBR and decided to pick it up. It's alright, a little boring at points but it kept me engaged enough.

A vivid and gripping historical crime novel set in 19th century Edinburgh, Scotland, co-written by bestselling author Chris Brookmyre and consultant anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman

Narah Quinn

I loved this - I have already pre-ordered the second in the series! 

This one had me guessing right to the end and every time I thought I had figured it out I was twisted back around! 

1840's Edinburgh was richly described helping me feel like I was wondering the streets as a I read and I am immensely grateful for the advancements in medicine over the last 150 years having read this, surgery without anaesthetic and the horrors of childbirth and both mother and child mortality are not shied away from in this world of developing midwifery. 

Wonderfully developed characters came together in a graceful dance of circumstance and they stepped together and apart just where needed. Initially I wasn't sure about Raven, we knew he was hiding something and his early behaviour made him less likeable than I normally expect of a main character, but it was refreshing and I felt similarly about Sarah and her disdain for the 'upstairs' folk, even when they were being genuine, she didn't view it as such. Though I appreciated her frustrations it made me wish she would stop looking for the ill in people. 
But, as you would hope, as the story progresses and they develop both together and apart, you grow to love them, to root for them, and hope that they make it to the end of the book! 

Book 2 promises even more of the last half of this which I just adored once they came together. 
I have some wonderful new names for people (seriously - if you can't see the beauty of 'sphincter-blossom' then you need to reassess your insult list!)

The Way of All Flesh

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