The Edinburgh Dead [Kindle Edition]

If you love an Urban Fantasy story that has drama, historical content and of course features a city with a dark and brutal past then you really have to pick up Brian Ruckley's new novel, The Edinburgh Dead. It's cleverly plotted and utilises one of the darker parts of the city's history. Add to this some of the blackest magic, a whole host of undead as well as a lead character perfectly capable of hacking his way through it all to the heart of the matter (in more ways than one) and it's a satisfying read.

Whilst Brian is perhaps better known for his epic fantasy series Godless World, this title demonstrates not only a huge talent but one that really will grip the reader in its vice like hands as much from the first page as its last. Wonderfully descriptive, beautifully created and of course with a cracking set of verbal architecture from which to base a series, it's definitely one that I'll eagerly await future instalments from.

I have to confess to have been sat on a copy of Winter Birth by Ruckley for about 3 years now which I have yet to pick up (I do have at least the weight of a small family car in unread books!)but just fancied this for some reason and it didn't disappoint!

I think one of the other reviewers descibed it as horror/ history crossover and I would entirely go along with that analogy. It reminded me a bit of 'Twelve' by Jasper Kent who set a vampire based story amid the Napoleonic invasion of Russia.

The action here takes place on the mean streets and Graveyards of old Edinburgh, which is just perfect for this, at times, genuinly creepy story!

Ex war vet, turned copper, 'Quire' encounters something nasty in the Graveyard and his investigations take him into the heart of the Scottish monied set and at odds with the flourishing medical disectioners of the time! Quire put me in mind of Adam Peppers 'Pyke' a similarly volatile and dogged crime fighter equally unafraid to fight dirty when required. Ruckley's writing is also excellent, almost poetic at times and very much evoked the atmosphere of the time and setting. His characterisation is also good and the story nicely paced.

Minor and general spoiler alert

To find a small fault the villains after shaping up nicely throughout the story did seem to go down at bit easy in the last round.

But this book kept me coming back for more and looking forward to bedtime. I will now root about in my unread book mountain for Winter birth!

Top Notch.

Wow! 2011 is drawing to a close and I think I just found my favourite read of the year. Totally brilliant! It's rare that I can use the term 'unputdownable', but I definitely can say it about this one. Read it in less than 48 hours, which for me is pretty much unheard of. Could NOT put it down.

I'm fond of Historical fiction (albeit usually romantic) but to say I'm not usually a crime/mystery reader is an understatement, not a single murder mystery comes to mind that I've read but the lure of an area I'm familiar with used as a backdrop, coupled with zombie dogs just sucked me right in. There are zombie humans too but I mostly wanted to see the zom-dogs loose on Edinburgh's streets and closes.

I really, really loved that I knew all the places mentioned in the book, all of the places and building's are familiar to me. Loved that. The people of the story are familiar 'faces' too...even the non-famous one's. Go to certain parts of Edinburgh on any given day and chances are you'll rub shoulders with just the sort of people mentioned in the pages. There's maybe 200 years seperating them but their banter hasn't changed that much. As for the famous 'faces' well, in particular Burke and Hare the infamous body snatchers or 'Ressurectionists' as they were also know are common knowledge for anyone who spends any time in or around Edinburgh and I loved reading about them. Fictionalised in parts but great fun to read nonetheless.

And zombie's. Let's not forget the zombies. They're the reason that I wanted to read this so bad in the first place, although I did wonder how a person could fit the undead into an Historical murder/crime/mystery. The whole book has a dark, gritty feel to it and the air of supernatural 'going's on' didn't seem out of place or contrived at all. In fact, as unlikely as it all sounds Mr Ruckley writes in such a way as to have me think it was all quite plausible. It's very well done.

I loved all of the characters and really felt like I got to know them. Some of them I'd like to know even better and REALLY want there to be more cases for Adam Quire to solve... I'd read any and all stories if this were made into an ongoing series.

There's a bit of a twist in the tale at the end and being as unfamiliar with crime mystery as I am, I'm not sure if that's usual but whether it is or it isn't, the twist at the end just sealed the deal for me. It was a brilliant end to a brilliant story and I just hope I can find more stories like it.

I can't say enough good things about this, I just really, really liked this one.

Really liked it! A lot!