NetGalley – Page 55 – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

1854 marks the dawn of a scientific age. Queen Victoria delivers a healthy heir after receiving chloroform during labour. Florence Nightingale makes headlines as she leads a troop of middle-class women out into the war zones as nurses. In Edinburgh, we see Henry Littlejohn appointed as the city’s police surgeon, dubbing himself as the ‘medical detective’, investigating sudden deaths – whether accidental or intentional.

Never has there been a time where people have been so enthralled by possibilities of science, but this appetite for the amazing is also being fed by a new generation of showmen and magicians, whose invention and ingenuity leave the public often unable to distinguish between the wonders of technology and the art of illusion.

Several mesmeric hospitals pop up in Edinburgh, claiming remarkable cures and offering egalitarian training for men and women. While the medical establishment remains sceptical, Dr James Young Simpson has an open mind, dabbling in seances to give this niche study a fair chance. Having faced discrimination from the medical field on the basis of gender, Sarah Fisher sees the hospitals as a place for opportunity.

Great danger lies in the shadowlands between science and superstition, between genuine medical progress and cynical quackery, thus setting the stage for a grand and deadly illusion.

Format: eARC (416 pages) Publisher: Canongate
Publication date: 15th June 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Voices of the Dead (Raven, Fisher and Simpson #4) on Goodreads

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My Review

Voices of the Dead is the fourth book in the authors’ Raven, Fisher and Simpson series of historical crime mysteries set in late nineteenth century Edinburgh. I’ve read all the previous books in the series – The Way of All Flesh, The Art of Dying and A Corruption of Blood – but I think this may be the best one yet. Voices of the Dead can be read as a standalone but you would miss out on the way the authors have developed the main characters and the relationships between them over the course of the series.

One of the things I like about the books is how the authors incorporate medical advances of the period, often the subject of controversy, into what are skilfully plotted, exciting crime mysteries. In this case, it’s the potential use of mesmerism to cure medical conditions.

Will Raven and Sarah Fisher are great characters with things in common, such as tragedy in their pasts, but also complementary qualities. Sarah is logical and practical, whereas Will is more the man of action. Their teasing, at times precariously close to intimate, relationship has been one of the joys of the series.

They both face moral dilemmas at some point in the book. Sarah is forced to consider whether her desire to embrace mesmerism as a path to achieving her ambition to be a doctor is blinding her to possible flaws in the claims of its efficacy. ‘Was her own desire to be of significance affecting her judgment? Was she craving being taken seriously to such an extent that she was losing perspective?’ I felt her frustration and the unfairness of her abilities not being recognised because of her sex.

Meanwhile Will finds himself having to choose between achieving his personal ambitions and his conscience. And, as before, he remains haunted by the violence of his past. As one character observes, ‘I have seldom seen a man with so many ghosts about him, You are surrounded by the dead.’ Yet now, as a husband and father, Will has even more reason to fear that legacy.

The book sees the return of some characters from previous books, a few in very different guises. I always think it shows skill to make a reader feel sympathy for a character who has serious flaws, but the authors manage to do it here to great effect. As befits a plot that involves the question of what is real and what is illusion, there are some great sleights of hand and misdirections. In the final chapters the action moves from gentle simmer to conflagration, in a neat echo of the prologue. There’s a tantalising sense of jeopardy and, at various points, I’m sure I won’t be alone in thinking, I really wouldn’t do that if I was you.

Voices of the Dead is an ingenious and absorbing historical crime mystery, and a splendid addition to the series. And, Ambrose Parry, what teases you are with that ending! Don’t make us wait too long for the next one.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Canongate via NetGalley.

In three words: Clever, intriguing, suspenseful

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About the Authors

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.

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About the Book

Britannia, AD 117: Roman centurion Flavius Ferox is trying to live a quiet life of dignified leisure, overseeing his wife’s estate and doing his best to resist the urge to murder an annoying neighbour – until someone else does it for him. Dragged back into a life of violence, Ferox finds himself chasing raiders, fighting chieftains and negotiating with kings, journeying far into the north just as war breaks out.

With the new emperor, Hadrian, sending agents from Rome, the whole world seems to be changing: old friends become enemies, enemies claim they are friends, and new and deadly threats lurk in the shadows.

When, five years later, Hadrian himself comes to Britannia to inspect his great wall, a new war erupts suddenly, dividing tribes and families. Ferox is the only one who can save the emperor – but with his family, and his own life, in danger, Ferox must first decide whose side he is on…

Format: eARC (480 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 8th June 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Wall (City of Victory #3) on Goodreads

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My Review

The Wall is the chunky but absorbing final book in the City of Victory series, the follow-up to The Fort, which I read when it was first published in 2021, and The City, published in 2022 which has been on my wishlist ever since then. Although The Wall can be read as a standalone, I found I missed not having witnessed the exploits of Flavius Ferox in the previous book so my recommendation would be to read the series from the beginning. (I suspect the author would like that as well.) If you want to go back even further, Ferox first appeared in the author’s earlier ‘Vindolanda’ trilogy comprising Vindolanda, The Encircling Sea and Brigantia. True to form I’ve only read the first one, have the second one in my TBR pile and the third on my wishlist.

As a renowned historian of Ancient Rome, it will come as no surprise that the book is crammed full of detail about Roman army structure, weaponry and military strategy that just oozes authenticity. (An extensive glossary is provided for those who don’t know their spatha from their pilum, or want to learn some Roman army slang.) I would also recommend reading the Historical Note in which the author sets out the many gaps in the historical record which he has filled with a combination of invention and reasoned speculation based on his extensive knowledge of the period.

The Wall has everything that fans of Roman age historical fiction could desire. There are intense, bloody and bone-crunching battle scenes. ‘Shield thumped against shield. There were grunts of effort, rage and fear, rare clashes of sword on sword, more of iron biting into flesh.’ As usual, Ferox is often one step ahead of everyone else thanks to that instinct for which he has become renowned, but even he can sometimes be caught napping and there are some narrow escapes. An element of mystery – and mysticism – is introduced by means of a fanatical warrior who has a very personal vendetta. And there are those who, for reasons of personal gain, aim to create havoc by pitting one tribe against the other or disrupt the fragile peace that has existed between some tribes and Rome. There are also those who are just plain deluded about their own abilities which might not be so bad if it weren’t for the fact they’re responsible for the lives of thousands of others.

The book is set after the death of Trajan as the new Emperor Hadrian is consolidating his position, involving some strategic getting rid of people, and settling into the role of governing an empire whose borders are fraying at the edges. Although supreme power has its rewards, Hadrian learns it’s also a burden, ‘an endless task, like Sisyphus and his boulder’. The scenes involving the building of Hadrian’s Wall are absolutely fascinating and the author manages to weave in some exciting skirmishes alongside the technical detail of its construction, which, as he acknowledges in the Historical Note, are still the subject of discussion among historians.

Characters from previous books return, including Vindex, Ferox’s faithful companion. I loved that we get an insight into the personal relationship between Ferox and the woman who is now his wife, and mother of his children, Claudia Enica, who also happens to be Queen of the Brigantes and a skilled warrior in her own right. Having your sleep disturbed by someone who hogs the bed covers or snores is possibly something we can all identify with. As perhaps befits the last book in a series, there’s plenty of settling of scores in often bloody ways, and quite a few of the characters won’t make it to the last page.

The Wall is a terrific finale to a hugely enjoyable series.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Authentic, assured, action-packed

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About the Author

Adrian Goldsworthy studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army. He went on to become an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous works of non-fiction, including Caesar, Pax Romana, Hadrian’s Wall and Philip and Alexander. He is also the author of the Vindolanda series, set in Roman Britain, which first introduced readers to centurion Flavius Ferox.

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