#Blogtour Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry

 It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry.

About the Author/s

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. Follow @ambroseparry on Twitter

About the book

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 . . .

Review

I'm not sure about the relationship between Sarah and Raven anymore. I think in the beginning, at least that's the way I remember it, the pull between them was strong and the interactions more playful. There was perhaps a certain expectation of a relationship, and yet as the series has grown the further the two of them have grown apart. Ambition, societal expectations, the disappointment of the realisation that being a mere mortal comes with miscalculations and mistakes - it starts to chip away at the relationship between the two of them. 

Raven can be a bit of a strange one, he doesn't always fit the description of the perfect one that just happens to be bound with wife and child. There is perhaps a level of manipulation, you can't have everything you want and tick all the boxes society wants you to at the same time.

It does however make him the perfect person to be thrown into the deep end of the exploratory, advancing and ever evolving field of surgical medical care. What appears to us now as insanity, experimental hazards and playing with human life as if they were all just subjects in a rather large laboratory, was set in stone as the experienced surgeon and medical men doing their utmost to save their patients.

Throwing mystery, murder and mayhem into the mix by weaving historical fact from the profession with the depravity of crime plus the fascination with the world of the occult and the fraudulent practises of the surgical use of mesmerism - it makes for a fascinating read. This author duo never disappoints when it comes to a riveting read.

Buy Voices of the Dead at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Canongate Books; pub date 15 Jun. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.