Ambrose Parry (Chris Brookmyre & Marisa Hearzman) talk to Paul Burke about The Death of Shame, Edinburgh, the Scottish enlightenment, partnership writing and the myth of Burke & Hare. THE DEATH OF SHAME 1854, Edinburgh.Respectable faces hide private sins.Apprentice Sarah Fisher is helping fund Dr Will Raven's emerging medical practice in exchange for being secretly trained as a doctor. Sarah needs no instruction in the inequalities that beset her gender, but even she has her eyes opened when her help is sought in the search for a missing woman. Annabel Banks was promised a job in a prestigious household, but she never appeared at her employer's house, and there has been no word from her since.Sarah's inquiries lead her to discover the plight of hundreds of girls ensnared in Edinburgh's many brothels: lured, abused and left ruined in the eyes of a society obsessed with moral purity. Meanwhile, when a prominent society figure throws himself from the Scott Monument, Raven is asked to establish whether the death was indeed suicide and, if so, what might have driven this highly successful man to take his own life.Drawing upon real historical events, The Death of Shame takes Raven and Sarah into a treacherous labyrinth of exploitation, corruption and high-level complicity. In a world where people are the prisoners of their secrets, the death of shame is the only path to liberty. Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym for a collaboration between Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. The couple are married and live in Scotland. Chris Brookmyre is the international bestselling and multi-award-winning author of over twenty novels. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years' experience, whose research for her Master's degree in the History of Medicine uncovered the material upon which this series, which begun with The Way of All Flesh, is based. The Way of all Flesh was longlisted for both the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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