The Way of All Flesh

Will Raven is beginning an apprenticeship with legendary medical man Dr. Simpson, whose work in obstetrics and anesthesia is revolutionizing Edinburgh’s medical scene. Raven’s hoping that he’ll earn enough from this apprenticeship to pay off his debt to an unsavoury figure in the Old Town, and that he’ll learn enough to make his own mark as a professional. While living in Dr. Simpson’s house, Raven encounters Sarah Fisher, a housemaid who spends her spare time doing crowd control and triage at Dr. Simpson’s clinic and who’s just as smart as Raven in medical matters, but lacking his opportunities. The two of them get a chance to work together, though, when it’s revealed that women are dying throughout New Town, and nobody show more seems to care how or why.

I enjoyed the historical aspects of this novel very much. The authors behind the Ambrose Parry pen name (Chris Brookmyre and Dr. Marisa Haetzman) have constructed a seamless, well-researched novel. That said, the mystery was much less prominent than I would have expected, especially given that I’d heard about the book at Bloody Scotland. I suspect my reaction to the book is likely down to improperly calibrated expectations, so I would still recommend this book if it interested you. (And I’d certainly read another book if it became a series.) show less

"The Way of All Flesh," by Chris Brookmyre and his wife, Dr. Marisa Haetzman, who collaborate under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry, is set in Edinburgh in 1847. The young hero, Will Raven, is the penniless product of a dysfunctional family. Although he has limited prospects, Will is studying medicine and much to his relief, has landed a position as an apprentice to the acclaimed Dr. James Simpson. Highborn expectant mothers are willing to pay a handsome fee to be cared for by the well-regarded Dr. Simpson. Unlike many of his peers, this physician is neither self-serving nor greedy; he regularly offers his services to the poor for free.

Alas, Will Raven is a troubled young man with a penchant for getting into trouble. After a close friend, show more Evie Lawson, begs him for two guineas, he unwisely borrows it from a "cut-throat usurer" named Flint. Will has no means to repay the loan, and when it comes due, Flint's violent henchmen come after him. In addition, when Will discovers that prostitutes are dying under mysterious circumstances, he launches his own investigation to find out who is killing them and why. Another key character is an intelligent and outspoken housemaid, Sarah Fletcher, who is interested in anatomy, chemistry, and pharmacology. At first, Will and Sarah grate on one another's nerves, but they later join forces to foil a cold-blooded villain.

Parry’s Edinburgh is a place of "public decorum and private sin, city of a thousand secret selves." Moreover, doctors and surgeons in the mid-nineteenth century did not consistently follow the dictum, "Do no harm." In their eagerness to concoct new potions--including a safer and more effective anesthetic--some practitioners experimented on themselves and others, heedless of the dangers involved. The authors explore the evils of greed, sexism, and religious intolerance, and emphasize that, in those days, there was an unbridgeable gap between the privileged classes and the lowborn who were mired in poverty. The plot incorporates a touch of romance and a promise of further adventures to come. Will is just beginning to realize that he must rein in his tendency to lash out if he is to become a mature and competent person worthy of respect. "The Way of All Flesh" is a bit too long and concludes with a predictable and melodramatic finale. Nevertheless, this is a compelling and colorful novel, the descriptive writing is first-rate, and Parry whets our appetite for the next installment in what promises to be an absorbing series. show less

This historical crime novel is set in the Victorian Era, specifically in 1847 Edinburgh, Scotland. Will Raven, 19, is newly apprenticed to the eminent physician James Simpson (an actual figure from real life), who specialized in gynecology, or as it was known then, midwifery.

When the story begins, Will has just discovered the death of a prostitute, Evie Lawson, a woman he first encountered as her customer but then befriended. Will had come to visit her and found her corpse in a gruesome state of contortion. Will fled from the scene lest he be implicated, but became obsessed with finding out what happened to Evie. He knew the police would have no interest in investigating the fate of “just another deid hoor” as one officer dismissed show more the case.

Before her death, Evie had made a desperate plea to Will for money. He didn’t know what it was for, but having few resources of his own, he borrowed from a less-than-savory money lender to help her. The night before he was to begin his apprenticeship, goons working for the money lender caught up with him on the street and cut his face to show they were serious about getting repaid.

Dr. Simpson takes Will along with him on the many emergency calls he receives, and has Will administer ether to patients whose families allow it. Some don’t; there was a great deal of prejudice at the time against anesthesia, mostly from religious quarters. As Will recapitulated their objections for his friend Henry, a surgical intern:

“Pain in labour is natural, a manifestation of the life force, an ordinance from the Almighty and therefore painless childbirth is unnatural and improper. Under the influence of anaesthesia, some women have been heard to use obscene and disgusting language - words that they should never have had the opportunity to hear - which of course means that it is wrong ever to employ it.”

At any rate, ether had its dangers, and Dr. Simpson was ever on the lookout for a safer method to produce a reversible insensibility during surgery.

Sarah Fisher was a housemaid at the Simpson’s and also assisted with Dr. Simpson’s clinic. At first she found Will arrogant - albeit admittedly good-looking - but hoped he would eventually learn that she could be a valuable asset to him. Indeed, he does; Sarah is very bright and capable.

Nevertheless, Sarah is constantly told it is only appropriate for a man to do certain things.

Speaking of her male peers, Sarah mused:

“Given the same chance, she was confident she would excel over any of them, so it stung when all they saw was a housemaid.”

She thought Will, too, exhibited “the male trait of believing the world revolved around them, usually because it did.”

The women in the Simpson household have accepted the hegemony of men, telling Sarah that “a woman’s God-given role is to be a wife and mother.” Thus, Sarah noted, women were “encouraged to fuss over fripperies as they concerned themselves with how they might adorn themselves the better to please men.” At the same time, they were excoriated for employing these same fripperies to "tempt" men to engage in “sinful” behavior.

Before long, the bodies other women - mostly from the lower class, were discovered in the same contorted throes of death as Evie had suffered. Sarah and Will began to work together to solve the mystery of what was happening.

The authors conclude with a Historical Note, in which they state that many of the characters and incidents depicted are based on real events and real people, and they provide examples.

Discussion: Much of the plot turns on two medical controversies swirling at the time; as indicated above, one involved the use of anesthesia during surgery - especially during childbirth - and the other involved the supervision of women’s bodies by men. Alas, over 170 years later, in August 2019, I came across this in an article:

"Women’s bodies are one of the biggest political battlegrounds of our time. What should in many ways be personal – a woman’s body – is instead political. The assault ranges from the recent clampdown on family planning in the United States (and its global gag rule prohibiting funding for international family-planning organisations that discuss or offer abortion), to new repressive restrictions on clothing, including ‘burqa bans’, or new laws in a growing number of European countries that aim to abolish women’s ability to monetise their bodies. Everyone, it seems, has a view on what women should or shouldn’t be doing with their own bodies."

Moreover, the article continues:

"Still, today, almost one in two pregnancies globally are not intended, and more than 200 million women worldwide who would like to control their fertility have no access to birth-control technology. . . . In the US, the assault on family planning includes headline-grabbing changes to abortion law in certain states, renewed offensives on Planned Parenthood, an organisation that provides birth control and sexual health services for millions of the poorest women in the US . . . .”

It should be noted that Ambrose Parry is the pseudonym for the married couple Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. Brookmyre has written over twenty novels for which he has won a number of awards, and Dr. Haetzman is a consultant anesthetist. The information provided on the authors explained that Dr. Haetzman uncovered the material for this novel while doing research for her Master’s degree in the History of Medicine.

Evaluation: Although there were two authors writing this novel (see Discussion, above), the writing was seamless. The Edinburgh setting appealed to me, as well as the evolution of the main characters. There were a number of twists, and the ending caught me completely by surprise.

It turns out that this book is to be the first in a series, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s production company SunnyMarch already pre-empting the television rights. I’m delighted to hear it; I look forward to returning to these characters as well as to Victorian Edinburgh and the history of medicine. show less

Para ser honesta me he encontrado con un libro muy diferente a lo que me esperaba, leyendo la sinopsis me esperaba un thriller de estilo policiaco ubicado en el siglo XIX, donde los protagonistas se embarcaban en una larga investigación sobre asesinatos de prostitutas, bueno, me esperaba algo así como un Jack el destripador y muchos asesinatos gores, algo típico, pero en lugar de eso me he encontrado con una novela muy diferente.

Es verdad que hay asesinatos y es verdad que los protagonistas, Sara y Raven se embarcan en una investigación, sin embargo, no es para nada el típico libro policiaco y a decir verdad en cierto sentido estas muertes e investigación no son el centro de la historia.

El libro fluye por la vida y personalidad show more de sus protagonistas, sobre todo de Raven, un joven estudiante de medicina, pobre y algo pendenciero que por algún motivo (que por cierto no se explica y me habría encantado saber) es aceptado por un médico muy reputado como su ayudante en prácticas, el Dr. Simpson, que además de ser ginecólogo está en busca de alguna sustancia que ayude a dormir a los pacientes para evitarles dolor durante las intervenciones quirúrgicas y en su caso particular durante los partos, al principio el Dr. Simpson solo utiliza el éter, que es además una sustancia que no es muy aceptada en el mundo médico.

Así vemos a Raven que llega a trabajar como practicante del Dr. Simpson y al mismo tiempo se embarca en una investigación para saber cómo murió una amiga de él que ejercía de prostituta.

Me ha gustado mucho el personaje de Raven, un chico con muchas ganas de salir adelante, con el sueño de salir de su pobreza y lograr destacar en la vida como médico, su lucha consigo mismo ante su angustia cuando cree que no puede lidiar con el dolor de sus pacientes y es inevitable sentir un poco de pena por él por la forma en que los demás lo tratan y lo ven en comparación a como quisiera que lo mirasen los demás.

Sara que trabaja como sirvienta en casa del Dr. Simpson es una chica inteligente que reniega de su status social, no le gusta su trabajo y no siente esa supuesta gratitud que le dicen que debería sentir por tener un trabajo honesto, ella sueña con poder estudiar, ser tratada como un igual ante los hombres, es una mujer resuelta y fuerte y el tándem que hace con Raven realmente me ha gustado mucho.

La acción del libro no comienza realmente si no hasta la mitad del mismo y el thriller que tanto esperaba no llega si no hasta la última cuarta parte del libro, me ha sido muy fácil adivinar la resolución de las cosas, pero eso no ha importado, realmente me ha gustado mucho el libro y me lo he leído casi de una sentada.

Con todo lo que más me deja este libro es la inevitable gratitud de vivir en este siglo y no haber vivido en una época donde no solo las mujeres eran vistas como menos socialmente si no en una época donde si te enfermabas te esperaba una segura tortura, gracias por los avances médicos.

Además este libro toca un tema que por mucho que pasen los años y los siglos sigue siendo un tema controvertido y nada fácil de tratar socialmente, la dificultad de las mujeres a la hora de lidiar con embarazos no deseados y las consecuencias de las practicas espantosas de aquellos que se aprovechan de la necesidad de estas mujeres, como de lo mucho que la sociedad tiene que ver con empujar a estas mujeres a buscar remedios espantosos y terribles, si bien me podrán decir que la medicina ha avanzado, en lugares donde el aborto es ilegal y que son la mayoría, siguen muriendo mujeres a manos de personas sin escrúpulos por las practicas no solo ilegales si no mal hechas para detener embarazos no deseados, todo un tema que como he dicho, sigue siendo hoy en día casi tabú.

El final me ha encantado y espero con ansias el segundo libro de esta serie show less

This novel is a smart and engaging tour of Victorian Edinburgh, rife with danger around every foggy corner. Our heroes are Raven, a young doctor, and Sarah, maid at the household where he is apprenticed. In pursuit of a charlatan taking advantage of women at the fringe of society, Raven and Sarah are participants in the era’s medical developments as well as the timeless barriers that women face, both in seeking an education and in the ability to control their own reproductive choices.

I greatly enjoyed the entwining of fiction and fact; several characters and their historic discoveries walk right out of the medical history books. There is also a delightful map of old Edinburgh in the preliminary pages. There are a number of characters show more to keep track of and I sometimes wished the chapters weren’t quite so short, but overall this was a memorable and thoughtful mystery to recline with. show less

This mystery and the historical setting of 1840's London really worked well for me. The characters were idiosyncratic and well-developed, especially Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. The adventure felt very credible, the medical difficulties of difficult births amongst the poor all too real, but handled sensitively by the authors.

While it became somewhat obvious who the culprit was, the story was generally engrossing, despite some overly repetitious medical details. The outcome was fittingly satisfying, though as a murder mystery the narrative was overshadowed by medical practice drama of the times. I did admire the twist at the end. Recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction and can cope with the portrayal of life in the reality of show more the mid-19th century. show less

Annie from A Bookish Type steered me towards this historical mystery and I’m glad I took her advice. I’m a sucker for good period pieces with good research interwoven with a good story. The Way of All Flesh checks all most boxes (you know I’m picky).
The setting is 1847 Edinburgh, and by my book it’s already a good point: you might already know that I can’t resist a good Scottish mystery, especially after we visited the city a few years ago. Edinburgh really comes alive in its different neighborhoods, with a stark contrast between the seedy, gloomy, disease- and poverty-ridden Old Town, and the posh, clean and safe New Town.

Read the rest of my review at Smithereens. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via show more NetGalley, for review consideration. show less