Book Review: Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan

Fleshmarket does not contain cannablism. Only Jokes about Cannabism,

"Footsteps echoed through the towering corridors as the woman walked...followed by her silent family. No One could touch her. She touched none of them. She was different. Robbie, young as he was, felt it...had felt her pain as if it was his. It had burned him and left its mark. The mark was the empty space where his real mother had been. The place where she had left him.'

It is Edinburgh, 1828 and Robbie is haunted by the horror of his mother's death at the hands of the famous surgeon, Dr Robert Knox. The Operation was intended to save her life. Instead it brought her intolerable pain before it killed her. Now her family is torned apart, and living in appalling poverty. A desperate Robbie is intend on Revenge on Knox. But how far is he prepared to go - and what will he lose in the process?


This is a book I wanted to read since 5th Nov 2007 when I heard about, brought it 7 years later and read it almost 10 years later. It sounded cooler, I tried to buy when I heard about it, but I don't think I had enough money on me. The lady selling the books also seem confused that I would want that one also.

So this book is about Robbie who blames his family's poverty on real historian person Dr Robert Knox. The book goes during the birth of Modern Medicine, as in they didn't know about bacteria and inflections yet. Nor much about the Human body as no one was willing to have their body cut for science as religion says that you need your body to rot for God for some reason.

This book does have lot questioning of God, because of the time period and the list of bad things that have happened to our main character. It's a few pages of the book, and think is reflective of the time the book is set. The bodies rotting for god does come into play of the plot. If you recognize Doctor Know, then you probably guess how it relates. I didn't and strangely I never guess what a book called Fleshmarket set in 19th century would involved such a famous Edinburgh thing so I will leave you to discover it or already know.

I think a big problem is that Robbie is a bit desperate to blame Knox for his problems that it comes across as dumb. Yes, he 14 and hormonal, but there's several "error of my ways" moments that happen in this book. He also abandons his 8 yr old sister several times, making him unlikable.

Overall, I give this book 3.5/5 stars for bread barrow. I prefer Nicola Morgan's The Highwayman's Footsteps series better than this book. It was okay, I don't know if Young me would have liked it better. If more a fan of historian fiction involving real people then this might be the book for you.