Hello
Readers,
Thank
you, NetGalley for the chance to read this ebook for free in exchange for an honest review
Ambrose
Parry is a pseudonym for bestselling author Chris Brookmyre and his wife Dr
Marisa Haetzman, a consultant anaesthetist. It was Marisa's research for her
Master's degree in the History of Medicine which uncovered the material upon
which this novel is based.
This is a remarkable story mixes medical drama
with romance and murder mystery. I’ve not read many crime books recently (I
think the last was Betty Church), but I found this storyline tense, surprising
and made me want to find a similar book.
Chris and Marisa tell the incredible story of the discovery of
chloroform and the research done by medical practitioners of the time, with some
gruesome procedures tossed in, not unnecessarily mind but to emphasise the
reality of healthcare at the time (shudder). Around these wonderful and
educational facts hidden in the tale, the authors have woven a chilling and
intriguing tale. The book is written in an old-fashioned style with some
wonderful words that immerse you more deeply into the era of the story and it
wasn’t more difficult to read for it.
The
novel is set in Edinburgh in 1847, a dual city, with both the Old Town and the
New Town, once the home to brilliant advances in medical science, but a city of
great poverty with a truly unpleasant, violent side. In New Town the book
focuses on the Home of Dr Simpson, His house is like no other, full of visiting
luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia.
Dr Simpson is a well-known gynaecologist and surgeon, who was instrumental in
discovering the anaesthetic properties of a substance chloroform. chloroform
was used to ease the discomforts of childbirth and to assist with difficult
births, which in were frequently fatal. Also living in his house were his
assistants, Drs Mathew Duncan and George Keith, all real people.
While
the principal characters are all imaginary. Will Raven is given the post of
apprentice to Dr Simpson, Raven is also given a room in the Simpson home and
there he encounters Sarah, a maidservant who has a fascination for medical
matters and secretly reads books on the subject, borrowed from Dr Simpson's
library and assists in a basic capacity with clinics. As Sarah is of lowly birth
and more importantly, female, is destined to never rise above this station in
life. However, she is a strong-willed
young woman, Sarah has hopes of one day working in the medical profession an
outrageous idea for a woman at that time in history. One especially good theme throughout the book
is that of misogyny and class in the 19th century which helps you really grasp
what little opportunity there was for those born of the ‘inferior sex’ or on
the wrong side of town.
On
the other side in the city’s Old Town several young women have been found dead,
all having suffered similarly gruesome ends.
Just before Raven joins the Simpson household, Evie - a prostitute who's
become a friend of Raven - is found dead, her face and body hideously contorted
and similar deaths in the poorest parts of Edinburgh have him believing these
women may have been murdered. Raven begins to pick his way through the dark
motives and powerful alliances that are concealing the truth.
As
Dr Simpson treats patients from the richest to the poorest in Scotland's
capital city, he and his colleagues carry out daring experiments. Meanwhile,
Raven and Sarah have their own motive to look deeper into the city’s spate of
suspicious deaths and find themselves forced into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh’s
underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to
make it out alive. The couple, initially disliking each other, gradually share
a mutual respect.
L
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