Voices of the Dead -Ambrose Parry

 

I understand that this is the fourth in the series, featuring Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. I haven’t read the previous books and not having done so has not impacted upon my enjoyment of this book. Rather it’s whetted my appetite to read the previous three books and I believe there is a fifth already available as an e-book.I very much enjoyed this Victorian murder mystery set against a back drop of scientific and medical exploration together with that age’s fascination with spiritualism. 

‘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 . . .’

It’s a complex plot that uses history and the trends of that age, very convincingly. The Victorians loved the art of illusion and it’s used to good effect here. It’s not just the historical research that is impeccable it’s the understanding of the tenor of that period and the atmosphere created is palpable. But as well as having a good story, the book also had something to say about the place of women in Victorian society, and how medicine and science so very much in their developing phases by comparison with today provoked a sense of good and a sense of bad. Not much different from today is it? Or am I a natural born cynic?

I enjoyed the characters of both Will and Sarah. I often wonder when you have two people writing a book whether they do actually write it together or if one writes one bit and the other writes another bit! I think it’s possible here that Chris Brookmyre wrote Will’s parts and Dr Marissa Haetzman wrote Sarah’s! I may have got that completely wrong. 🤣 But I love the dynamic between the two main characters. They came across as very real. Both very different from each other with their own back stories (that I am keen to explore at a later date.) But you sense it’s one of those couplings that occur in crime fiction and will endure. It just works so very, very well.

It’s well paced and I enjoyed how the tension racked up as the book reaches its conclusion. In fact, it was - MESMERISING!

My thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted copy.