5th August 2023

The fourth Raven and Fisher novel sees the pair dragged in to investigate another crime while they continue with their day jobs treating patients in 19th Century Edinburgh.

For some reason I was nervous picking this book up, but clearly that was nonsense as I read it in just two days.

There’s so much going on with multiple different plot lines going on for each of the main characters, interweaved throughout the book - both affecting the specific plot of this one, and developing their lives and relationships to keep things moving for their world.

Really great, and although there’s a small amount of gore and violence, I think it’s much less than in previous books.

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16th July 2023

A short story I somehow didn’t discover when it was published, this seems to fit somewhere maybe between the third and fourth books in the series.

It’s very short, and sees our favourite medical detective team of the 1800s looking briefly into a local death.

I suppose my main thinking is that I don’t understand why it’s a thing. It’s so short and feels like it must just be a publicity thing for the new book… but to someone who has been reading along already it just feels oddly lacking.

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1st May 2022

The third Ambrose Parry novel continues in the same style as the first two. We follow our characters though their mildly soap opera nineteenth century doctor lives, while they also investigate a murder or two.

As before, it’s a flood blend of mystery, history, and character, with a decent injection of brutal and explicit medical practice thrown in. Not for the faint hearted reader perhaps in that last respect.

I do feel a little like some of the more soapy aspects are starting to seem dragged out after three books, and are things that seem to fit into the classic trope of being solvable if only the characters would actually talk to one another.

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14th February 2021

The second book about Sarah Fisher and Will Raven, medical professionals of mid-nineteenth century Edinburgh, joins Will as he returns from a year away in Europe to take his place as a qualified doctor.

As with the first novel, there are some fairly graphical medical moments that might be uncomfortable reading for some. There are some sad and traumatic events, so might be best read with awareness of this going in.

The style is reminiscent of the author’s usual approach of telling half the story in retrospect - this time with one character’s memories of their past interwoven with events experienced alongside the other characters. This allows for quite a grim but realistic exploration of the historical context of the novel in an era quite different from today.

It is another good story, with characters that I found very engaging and world building that does a huge amount to paint the picture of the time. I’m enjoying reading this series and look forward to finding out where the characters will go next.

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13th September 2020

I was a bit trepidatious picking up this book. I’m late to the party - having only recently wondered why Chris Brookmyre’s output appeared to have slowed, only to discover from searching online that it’s because he’s been collaborating under the Ambrose Parry name. So having enjoyed his previous works, I was nervous about entering this new world and about whether I would like what I found.

I was in luck - this is an excellent book. Set in Victorian Edinburgh, it follows a young medical apprentice, and the clearly under-utilised genius employed as his mentor’s housemaid. It opens very historically, setting the scene of the time and place, the characters, and their various ‘stations’ and ranks in this society. The structure reminds me a little of fantasy fiction, in doing a decent amount of world building with the opening chapters.

To be honest it could have just been left there - I was hooked by the world and the history and the medicine - the plot almost felt an unnecessary distraction from the rich and thoroughly-researched detail. But arrive the plot did, and it too is a cracker - tying together the era, the characters, and a solid look at key social issues of the time (which while they should be ‘of the time’, and still somehow prescient today).

While some of the medical details were a little more vividly described than I would have appreciated, this realism feels fairly necessary to understanding some of what the book is trying to tell.

Easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I can’t wait to pick up the sequel and consume more in a similar vein. I’m glad I found it.

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