Ok, I loved that ending. It was fitting. And it was funny.

This turned out to be quite a fun book, even tho the crime solving really only gets going at the 60% mark and the language and attitudes are quite anachronistic. Still, it could have been much worse.

Oh, hang on, Simpson has just met David Waldie. So, the experiments with chloroform cannot be far off.

Again, I'm finding this aspect of the story much more interesting than the actual underlying murder mystery. Tho, we don't even know whether there is a murder mystery. There have been suspicious deaths...but there has been no investigation of any of them, and almost 60% into the book, I might suggest this is a bit late to start looking into that aspect of the book.

For all my issues with historical fiction, this is not horrible. I still like the medical history background best, and I am beginning to wonder when/whether the "author" is going to introduce Dr. Simpson's trialling chloroform instead of ether as the story is set, I believe, in the year that Simpson started promoting chloroform. I would expect there be a period of Simpson experimenting with the substance throughout the year, but so far there is not a whiff of this. (Sorry, I had to.)

Also, I've learned that the author is actually a team of writers: Chris Brookmyre and anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman. This may account for the medical element being quite well-written.

Overall, tho, this is not ground-breaking literature. It's an easy read to work away to, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

What an odd, odd book.

The book is set in Edinburgh, but more particularly it is set at James Young Simpson's medical practice and we follow a main character who is training as a doctor and is a junior assistant to Simpson. 

Simpson was a notable obstetrician (most famous for first promoting chloroform to ease labour pains - Queen Vic was a fan), so most of the cases we get to witness and most of the discussions we get to follow between the doctors (some very, very notable characters) all focus on childbirth, complications, abortions, quackery, and newfangled science such as phrenology etc. 

If I were flippant, I'd say this is a bit like Call the Victorian Midwife...

But among all of this there is also a murder mystery and the mystery of a disappearance which are not quite Ripperesque but are not far from it. 

Oh, and there is a hint of a blossoming romance.

If I weren't such a sucker for medical history (which seems to be quite good - I love the description of grumpy Duncan, another shining star of Victorian obstetrics), I'd be quite bored. 

Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder.

Everything about this premise sounds like it will be fun. :D

I just came across a post by my City Library on Facebook announcing that they are setting up a Digital Book Group, with the first discussion next Tuesday. 

So, I've downloaded the audiobook and will use this book as my home office companion this week.