I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for ‘Voices of the Dead’, the fourth novel featuring Dr Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. Thanks for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
From the Publisher:
EDINBURGH, 1853.
In a city of science, discovery can be deadly . . .
In a time of unprecedented scientific discovery, the public’s appetite for wonder has seen a resurgence of interest in mesmerism, spiritualism and other unexplained phenomena.
Dr Will Raven is wary of the shadowlands that lie between progress and quackery, but Sarah Fisher can’t afford to be so picky. Frustrated in her medical ambitions, she sees opportunity in a new therapeutic field not already closed off to women.
Raven has enough on his hands as it is. Body parts have been found at Surgeons’ Hall, and they’re not anatomy specimens. In a city still haunted by the crimes of Burke and Hare, he is tasked with heading off a scandal.
When further human remains are found, Raven is able to identify a prime suspect, and the hunt is on before he kills again. Unfortunately, the individual he seeks happens to be an accomplished actor, a man of a thousand faces and a renowned master of disguise.
With the lines between science and spectacle dangerously blurred, the stage is set for a grand and deadly illusion . . .
‘I loved Raven and Sarah’s latest fabulous adventure concerning
ALEX GRAY
the infancy of hypnotherapy whilst exploring the darker elements
of the human heart’
MICK HERRON
‘Brilliantly conceived, fiendishly plotted and immaculately realised,
these thrillers pull off the most difficult double-whammy of all:
beneath blood and butchery so real they almost stain the pages
lie both heart and soul . . . Wherever Parry takes them, I’ll follow’
IAN RANKIN
‘A rip-roaring tale of murder amid the medical experiments of
19th-century Edinburgh. The book brings both city and period to
colourful life and is a joy to read’
My Review:
I’ve followed this series from the start and absolutely love it – I couldn’t wait for the next instalment and it is a gem!
Because I devour these as soon as they’re available, it’s been a while since I read the last book so I wasn’t fully up to speed with where we had left Dr Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. For this reason, I think it would work fine as a standalone even though there is a lot of history between the pair.
The story opens with the finding of some body parts at Surgeon’s Hall which Dr Will Raven is brought in to look at, despite the management desperately wanting to distance themselves from a potential body-snatching scandal – in Victorian Edinburgh, in the wake of Burke and Hare, this is a lingering threat. When more body parts turn up, Will thinks he has identified a suspect – although he is not going to be the easiest to track down! While all this is happening, Sarah Fisher is dabbling with the new ‘science’ of mesmerism that is gripping the city. Given that medicine is closed to her as a woman, she is keen to make her mark in a field that is more accessible – but is it legitimate? Will and Sarah find themselves struggling to distinguish science from illusion as they race to find the murderer – and find that their own beliefs and morals are tested.
As with all the books in this series, readers need a strong stomach! It’s gruesome and grim, but also utterly fascinating and authentic (one half of the Ambrose Parry writing team is a a specialist in medical history and it is evident that she really knows her stuff!) The historical detail is also gloriously vivid and Victorian Edinburgh is brought to life – if you’re not comfortable in a dissection room, you might want to give this a miss. However, you’ll also be missing out on a piece of really immersive fiction as the reader is led through the city with realistic detail of the places, people and political tensions within the medical profession.
Dr Will Raven is a compelling and interesting central character – he has a chequered past and doesn’t always make good decisions. In fact, he has a really intriguing moral dilemma within this book and I wanted to scream at him to do the right thing! His relationship with Sarah is also subtly explored and packed with underlying tension. She is another strong character – lively and bright – within the series and I really feel for her frustrations in not being accepted as a credible medical professional because of her gender.
Against all the brilliantly precise medical detail, I loved that this book explored spiritualism too. It’s always been really interesting to me that – alongside all the advances in scientific understanding – the Victorians engaged heavily with spiritualism and the supernatural. I really liked this aspect of the story, especially the theatrical side of things as Sarah started to see the fine line between mesmerism for therapeutic benefit and mesmerism as public spectacle.
I’d heartily recommend this book whether or not you’ve paid previous visits to Will Raven/Sarah Fisher’s Edinburgh. It’s well-plotted and lively, full of interesting characters and an absolute pleasure to read.
About the Authors:
Ambrose Parry is the penname for two authors – the internationally bestselling and multi-award-winning Chris Brookmyre and consultant anaesthetist of twenty years’ experience, Dr Marisa Haetzman. Inspired by the gory details Haetzman uncovered during her History of Medicine degree, the couple teamed up to write a series of historical crime thrillers, featuring the darkest of Victorian Edinburgh’s secrets. They are married and live in Scotland. ‘The Way of All Flesh’, ‘The Art of Dying’ and ‘A Corruption of Blood’ were shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
‘A Corruption of Blood’ was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2022.
@ambroseparry
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Thanks for the blog tour support x