The Way of All Flesh (Hardback)

A vivid and gripping historical crime novel set in 19th century Edinburgh, The Way of All Flesh is a new venture for bestselling author Chris Brookmyre writing in collaboration with consultant anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman

The only difference between a medicine and a poison is the dosage.

Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder.

In the city's Old Town a number of young women have been found dead, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. Across the city in the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant and renowned Dr Simpson. Simpson's patients range from the richest to the poorest of this divided city. His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia.

It is here that Raven meets housemaid Sarah Fisher, who recognises trouble when she sees it and takes an immediate dislike to him. She has all of Raven's intelligence but none of his privileges, in particular his medical education.

With each having their own motive to look deeper into the city's spate of suspicious deaths, Raven and Sarah find themselves propelled headlong into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh's underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive.

Chosen by Ian Rankin – who called the book ‘A rip-roaring tale of murder amid the medical experiments of 19th-century Edinburgh [that] brings both city and period to colourful life and is a joy to read – as his summer read in the Guardian, this is a masterful work of historical crime fiction. Infused with a dry humour and forensically well-researched, it brings Edinburgh’s past vigorously to life.