The Edinburgh Dead

by Brian Ruckley

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316079969
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	08/17/2011
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Brian Ruckley was born and brought up in Scotland. After studying at Edinburgh and Stirling Universities, he worked for a series of organizations dealing with environmental, nature conservation and youth development issues. He lives in Edinburgh. Find out more about Brian Ruckley at www.brianruckley.com.

Editorial Reviews

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. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly