Epeolatry Book Review: The Way of All Flesh

Writing a novel and naming it “The Way of All Flesh” is setting a very high bar for oneself. Many of you may not know that an autobiographical novel by that name, was written by Samuel Butler and published in 1903 as a way to attack Victorian hypocrisy.
Ambrose Perry’s “The Way of All Flesh” is no different in its criticism to Early Victorian Britain, yet he conveys it in a whole different manner.
Will Raven is a medical student who becomes an apprentice of Dr. James Simpson in Edinburgh, 1847. Claimed to be the son of a deceased lawyer, Will seems to be too knowledgeable at the art of surviving in the mean streets of the old city, among the loan-sharks and prostitutes.
Sarah Fisher is the handmaid in Dr Simpson’s household, but she is also a self-taught student of medicine, at an era when women weren’t allowed to study. She helps the good doctor with his free clinic, and gains experience in practical medicine.
The two immediately take a disliking to one another…
This takes place as young women are found dead in Edinburgh in a most horrid way, but since these are ‘only’ maids and prostitutes, nobody really seems to bother investigating. And because both Will and Sarah are acquainted with two of the murdered girls, they team up to find the answers.
At the background there’s the real-life story of the obstetrician, Dr James Simpson’s and his discovery of chloroform. We read about a few attempts to find a better anaesthetic than the back-then popular ether, and the catastrophes that accompanied this quest.
“The Way of All Flesh” is a very well written novel. Both protagonists are likable and have been setup as multi-dimensional and complex characters. In a sense they will each appeal to a different kind of reader. The background to the story, regarding the anesthesia, is also very well told, and does not ‘burden’ the story with its technicalities.
The author is a fictional pseudonym of two people: Chris Brookmyre, who does an excellent job on the prose end; and Marissa Haetzmann, whose dissertation on the History of Medicine was the base for the novel. You could tell that there’s someone very knowledgeable in the medical-technical parts, while another is restraining her – keeping the medical “mambo-jumbo” to an absolute minimum.
The story, albeit simplistic, is plausible. You could tell that the author is setting the scene to write a full series here, however unlike many other similar scenarios, this specific story does come to a satisfactory ending, with no cliff-hanger (god I hate cliff-hangers!)
This is a gem, and I salute the literary agent who saw the potential in this book, a risk which will pay off. I will be looking forward to book number two.

The Way of All Flesh can be found on Amazon.