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The Way of All Flesh

Published on 1 May 2022

Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder.


Way of all flesh book cover

The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh is a crime thriller with a medical theme. It's set in 1840s Edinburgh, a city that is brought vividly to life in the story which starts with the death, in mysterious circumstances, of a young prostitute called Evie. It is Will Raven who finds Evie; he has been her client and also her friend, yet he flees the scene. Will is a 19-year-old medical student, a newly appointed apprentice to respected physician Dr James Simpson, who runs a private practice from his home, over the bridge in Edinburgh's affluent New Town. Will wants to get on in the world, and apprenticeship to Simpson is a step up the ladder. He is idealistic and principled - but what are the secrets he is hiding about his past? He encounters the people in his mentor's circle: his family, fellow doctors and servants, one of whom - Sarah Fisher - is more than just a maid in the Simpson household. To Will's astonishment, Sarah is also allowed to act as an unofficial surgery assistant, with her self-taught medical knowledge gleaned from Simpson's text books. She's spirited, intelligent and keen to learn, but she's thwarted in her ambitions by her gender and lowly status in life. There’s conflict between her and Will at first, and she's intrigued by this young man whose past is not what it seems.

There are more macabre, unexplained deaths of young women in the city, and when the body of a servant girl known to Sarah is recovered from the waters at Leith Docks - her corpse in the same grisly, post-mortem condition as Evie's - it becomes clear that a pattern is emerging, and that a cold-blooded serial killer may be at large. Both Will and Sarah now have a personal stake in finding out how these young women met their deaths, and they combine their skills to form an unlikely crime-fighting partnership on the streets of Edinburgh.

Reviewer's thoughts

This novel grabbed me from the beginning and I was quickly drawn into the world of Will Raven, who is a compelling character. The atmospheric setting of Edinburgh is pivotal to the plot – it's almost like another character in the story - with the poverty and prosperity of its citizens reflected in the division between the Old and New Towns. Anyone who's ever visited the city will recognise the locations which are still in existence today. Real historical characters, such as Dr James Young Simpson also feature in the story, and the plot cleverly draws on real events, and on the discoveries and experiments taking place in the field of medicine at the time, particularly in the development of anaesthetics.

The deft weaving together of history, murder and medicine makes for an excellent thriller, and it kept me pinned to the page. Raven and Fisher are an intriguing new crime-solving partnership and by the end of the novel I wanted to read more about them and their adventures – I’m pleased to report that the author has satisfied us with a further 2 novels in the series.

Find out more about the author

Ambrose Parry is the pseudonym of husband and wife writing team, crime novelist Chris Brookmyre and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman. Chris is an international bestselling and award winning author of 21 novels, including Black Widow. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of more than 20 years' experience. The Way of All Flesh is the first in their series of novels featuring Will Raven and Sarah Fisher: you can follow their adventures in The Art of Dying and A Corruption of Blood. Find out more about Ambrose Parry's novels.


This blog post has been assigned the following categories:

Category iconDeath Category iconHistorical Category iconMystery Category iconThriller

Comments (1)

Ambrose Parry's Will Raven and Sarah Fisher series is very popular with members of our reading group. Myself and a couple of others are reading them. We love the historical setting and the medical aspects of the plot.

Posted by Amy on 13 May 2022


Reply to comment 1 by Amy