Ambrose Parry Books In Order

Publication Order of Raven, Fisher, and Simpson Books

Ambrose Parry
Ambrose Parry is a pen name that Marisa Haetzman and Chris Brookmyre use for collaboration. Marisa and Chris are married to each other and live in Scotland.

Chris Brookmyre is a multi-award winning and bestselling author. He has won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

Dr. Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anesthetist. Her research for her Master’s degree in the History of Medicine revealed some of the material for one of their novels. It began when she was working on her dissertation in the year 2014 for an M.Sc. in the history of science. She never had the urge to write any fiction, just the one story. Marisa has always loved historical fiction, unlike her husband.

When they began writing the novel, Marisa already had many notes, fictionalized scenes, and narrative non-fiction. They didn’t intend on writing a crime at all, but one that looked at Will’s life as an apprentice as well as the professional temptations that are put in his way.

Marisa was the one that realized they were keeping themselves from making it a crime story and for no good reason either. Chris says that she has always had a lot of input on his other work, like coming up with the plot for his first novel, called “Quite Ugly One Morning”.

Once they had the tone all ironed out and set it as a crime story, it became much easier to divide up the scenes between the two of them. Despite they would subsequently revise one another’s work to iron out any stylistic irregularities that might exist.

Marisa appreciated having plenty of guidance about what the scenes she wrote should contain, seeing as how she doesn’t have the same experience from writing as many novels as Chris has. She would ask him where the story was going, which he didn’t have an answer for. Which drove her mad and he just told her that she would know when she wrote it.

Marisa learned through writing the novel to have patience and to believe in what you are doing, since there will be times you won’t. Chris would tell her that they would get to the end of a given scene and then they would see what they had at that point. He says this because once you hit that point, you will know more and acquire a much better perspective on what has already been finished.

All of this not knowing where you’re going, and having it come back into focus later on is foreign to Marisa. She is a control freak, as well as a consultant anesthetist. In this role, she cannot play things by ear because it could end in disaster. For this reason, she likes to plan things out.

Their first novel, called “The Way of All Flesh”, was released in the year 2018. It is the first of their “Ways of All Flesh” series of historical mysteries.

“The Way of All Flesh” is the first novel in the “Ways of All Flesh” series, which was released in the year 2018. Edinburgh, in 1847. In the city of Medicine, Murder, Money.

Young women are being found dead all over Old Town, each having suffered similarly brutal ends. In the New Town, Will Raven (a medical student) is close to starting his apprenticeship with Dr Simpson (the brilliant and renowned).

Simpson’s patients range from the poorest to the richest in this divided city. His house isn’t like any other, full of daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anesthesia, as well as visiting luminaries. Raven meets Sarah Fisher (a housemaid), who is able to recognize trouble when she sees it and immediately does not like him. She has got all of his intelligence, but not a single one of his privileges, like his medical education.

With each of them having their own motive to dig deeper into these killings, Sarah and Raven find they are thrust into Edinburgh’s underworld. A place they must overcome their own differences in order to survive.

Parry gives a rather fascinating look at medicine was practiced during these times when anesthetics were not widely used or understood. Even things that have not changed much over time, like: subservience that is expected of all women of any social class, mansplaining, and religious leaders that demand what they see is their good given right to control the reproductive health of others. The book does a great job of creating the atmosphere of the period and place.

“The Art of Dying” is the second novel in the “Ways of All Flesh” series, which was released in the year 2019. The year is 1850, in Edinburgh. Hordes of patients are dying all over the city, even though they are at the forefront of modern medicine, and the doctors find all their remedies powerless. It isn’t just the deaths that are dismaying the prominent Dr. James Simpson, as there is a whispering campaign that is attempting to put the blame for the death of a patient in suspicious circumstances.

Will Raven (Simpson’s protege) and Sarah Fisher (former housemaid) are determined to clear the name of their patron. Raven battles against the dark side of his very own nature and Sarah is working to expand her medical knowledge far beyond what society deems appropriate for a woman during this time. The two struggle to comprehend the cause of these deaths.

Will and Sarah have to come together and dive into the deadliest streets in Edinburgh to restore Simpson’s name. Quickly, they will find that the real cause of these deaths has been evading suspicion just because it is so unthinkable.

Fans liked Sarah’s aspirations to one day become a doctor and independent spirit. Parry penned another stellar mystery novel and described the atmosphere in Edinburgh well as well as the medical world of mid-nineteenth century Scotland. These books are proving to be entertaining, but they also explore Sarah’s awakening and her changed status as well as where her life is able to take her which is all fascinating to read.

4 Responses to “Ambrose Parry”

1. jacqui mccluskey: 12 months ago

   Hoping there’s going to be a sequel to Voices o the dead ? Can’t wait

   Reply
2. David Dale: 12 months ago

   I have tried to get a hard copy of The Spendthrift and the Swallow but all I can find is ebook or kindle. Could you enlighten me to where I can purchase it from please. Thank you in advance.

   Reply
   • Graeme: 12 months ago

     Unfortunately that one appears to currently be ebook only.

     Reply
   • Gill: 9 months ago

     You can download it free from the Canongate books website on the Ambrose Parry page. It’s quite short.

     Reply