Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson

 

Catriona McPherson is a native Scot living on the U.S. West Coast, where she turns out book after book, winning award after award for them. In 2005 she began a historical mystery series set in Scotland about a bored middle-aged matron which so far has 16 titles. She started writing a contemporary series about a Scot in California in 2018, with seven titles at this time, and she’s written nearly a dozen stand-alone crime fiction novels. Not satisfied with all this, in 2022 she launched a third series set in post-war Edinburgh about a welfare worker in the newly formed National Health Service.

The second book about Helen Crowther, The Edinburgh Murders, was released by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK 10 April 2025 and is scheduled for release in the US on 29 July. Helen is still grappling with the fallout of her first case, in which she stepped outside the role society assigned to her which earned her a reputation as a bit of a menace. She continues to provide assistance to the working folks of Fountainbridge ward who live in impossibly crowded conditions and make do on the slimmest of means.

Helen is at the Caledonia Crescent Baths, the public baths used by those whose housing arrangements do not stretch to a bathroom, assisting one of her clients when one of the attendants tries to roust a customer who has overstayed his time and instead finds a dead man floating in the bath. Both bath attendants and the neighborhood constable all faint or try to, leaving Helen to call Dr. Sarah Strasser, the doctor she works for. It was clearly not a natural death and Dr. Strasser brings the police in, who don’t understand how the murder was committed. Another equally odd death crops up a few days later, leaving Helen puzzling over them. The police are mostly worrying about an escapee from the local psychiatric hospital and have too much to do to connect the two deaths, so Helen feels free to investigate a bit on her own.

In addition to the unusual murders, the reader is given a bird’s-eye view into daily life of mid-century Edinburgh. McPherson has thoughtfully included a glossary of slang and colloquialisms in common use then. The character of Helen is as original as the setting. Her trailblazing role as a working woman in a new organization sets her apart from her family and threatens ties she is anxious to maintain. An absorbing story in a fresh place and time with a large dollop of social history, which readers of historical mysteries will find especially appealing.

·         Publisher: ‎Hodder & Stoughton (UK release 10 April 2025, US release 29 July 2025)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎304 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1399720449

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1399720441

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4jmJ6Ys

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.