The Edinburgh Dead

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.)