Death of Shame (Main)

Ambrose Parry

Book cover for Death of Shame (Main)
Image for variant 9781837263431
Book cover for Death of Shame (Main)
Image for variant 9781837263431

Death of Shame (Main)

Death of Shame (Main)

Ambrose Parry

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Description

1854, Edinburgh.
Respectable public faces hide sordid private sins.

Apprentice Sarah Fisher is helping to fund Dr Will Raven's emerging medical practice in exchange for being secretly trained as a medic, should the rules barring women ever change. Sarah needs no instruction in the inequalities that beset her gender, but even she has her eyes opened to a darker reality when a relative seeks her help in searching for her missing daughter. Annabelle Banks was promised a situation in a prestigious household, but there has been no word from her since she left home, and the agency that arranged her position says she never appeared.

Sarah's inquiries lead her to reforming campaigners trying to publicise the plight of the hundreds of girls ensnared in Edinburgh's houses of assignation. Sarah learns how young women are lured, deceived, trafficked and raped, leaving them ruined in the eyes of a society obsessed with moral purity, and where virginity is prized as a lucrative commodity.

Drawing upon real historical events, The Death of Shame takes Raven and Sarah into a treacherous labyrinth of exploitation, corruption, high-level complicity and Victorian-style revenge porn.

About the Author

Chris Brookmyre is an internationally bestselling and multi-award-winning author and Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years' experience. The couple teamed up to write a series of historical crime thrillers, featuring the darkest of Victorian Edinburgh's secrets. The Raven and Fisher series is inspired by the fascinating historical facts Haetzman uncovered through her master's degree in the History of Medicine which she completed in 2014. The Way of All Flesh was a Waterstones Thriller and Scottish Crime Book of the Month, was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Award and shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. 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. In 2024, Voices of the Dead was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and their short story A Spendthrift and the Swallow was shortlisted for the CWA Short Dagger Award.

Critical Reviews

"The husband and wife duo of Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman writing as Ambrose Parry is a creative match made in historical crime fiction heaven . . . Riveting" -Sunday Post


"So well devised and plotted that it rattles along compellingly. It is full of horrors, yet at the same time the characterization and the authors' mastery of pace means that you are likely to read it very happily at the gallop. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, a fine piece of craftsmanship" -ALAN MASSIE, Scotsman


"Victorian virtues turn out to be anything but in this gripping story which takes in photography, pornography and people trafficking" -Herald

"A rip-roaring tale of murder amid the medical experiments of 19th-century Edinburgh. The book brings both city and period to colourful life and is a joy to read"--IAN RANKIN

"Menacing, witty and ingeniously plotted, Ambrose Parry's debut draws you into the dark heart of nineteenth-century Edinburgh and won't let you go until the final page"--S.J. PARRIS

"The dark and dangerous past is brought thrillingly to life. I can't wait to read more of Raven and Sarah"--MARK BILLINGHAM

"Utterly compelling, this tale of Old Edinburgh is so full of characters and startling incident that I never wanted it to end"--DENISE MINA

"A thoroughly entertaining tale of murder and misadventure"-- "Sunday Times"

Praise for the series: "Brilliantly conceived, fiendishly plotted and immaculately realised, these thrillers pull off the most difficult double-whammy of all: beneath blood and butchery so real they almost stain the pages lie both heart and soul . . . Wherever Parry takes them, I'll follow"--MICK HERRON

Publishing Information

Publisher: Canongate Books
Pub date: 2025-10-14
Length: 432 pages

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