The Edinburgh Dead
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Edinburgh: 1828
In the starkly-lit operating theaters of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces.
Amongst the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a body is found, its neck torn to pieces. Charged with investigating the murder is Adam Quire, Officer of the newly- formed Edinburgh Police. The trail will lead him into the deepest reaches of the city's criminal underclass, and to the highest echelons of the filthy rich.
Soon Quire will discover that a darkness is crawling through this city of enlightenment -- and no one is safe from its corruption.
The Edinburgh Dead is a powerful fusion of gothic horror, history, and the fantastical.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scottish fantasy author Ruckley (the Godless World trilogy) ventures successfully into the gothic with this horrific thriller set in 1828. When an unidentified man is savaged to death, apparently by a wild beast, in Old Town, an impoverished Edinburgh neighborhood, the location of the crime makes it a low priority for Sgt. Adam Quire's colleagues in the force. Even his mentor, Supt. James Robinson, who helped Quire, emotionally and physically scarred from his army service in the Napoleonic wars, to pull himself together, is skeptical that the case is worth much effort, but Quire persists. A silver snuff box found on the victim leads to its owner, John Ruthven, an affluent man whose scientific experiments may have a link to the killing. Atmospheric descriptions ("A multitude of gloomy and overshadowed alleyways projected, like ribs, from the great street running down the spine of the ridge") help sustain the menacing mood.
Customer Reviews
Master wordsmith
This is one fine novel, indeed. The opening chapter seemed strong, the right words chosen to paint the right pictures. But that was merely a hint of what was to come. This is a powerful tale by an author who understands the power of words. The pulse drags the reader along until the very end. The ending is just right. The author sidesteps cliche and cheap shots. I mean this could have been another crappy book about vampires and zombies. He is far too clever a writer for that.