Review: An Engrossing 18th Century Whodunnit.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2013
I've spent many an evening wandering the closes and wynds of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, trying to imagine what it would have been like in days gone by. The noise, the bustle, the smells of seventy thousand people, high and low born, all living cheek by jowl in Scotland's ancient capital.What a pleasure it was, therefore, to start reading Stuart Laing's `A Pound Of Flesh' and find `Auld Reekie' recreated just as I would have imagined it. Not the dreamily romantic image we see on shortbread tins, but a harshly realistic picture of old Edinburgh where chamber pots are emptied out of windows, and taverns are dark drinking dens.However, I could not have imagined the wealth of characters he has brought to life to people these old streets. From the drink-sodden, philandering  Earl of Strathmickle, to Robert Young of Newbigging, the crime investigator who is hired to exonerate His Grace from a series of grisly murders, of which he has been accused.. Then there's Kitty McQueen, the paradoxically moral brothel Madam, or Estelle Cannonby, the lovely lass she has taken under her wing. My favourite character I think is Effie the Highland orphan rescued from the streets. There is a strength and feistiness and beauty in her which personifies old Edina herself. As Stuart Laing puts it:-"Robert had come to describe this city as being like young Effie. Under all that grime and filth was a beautiful woman, who only asked that you take the time and trouble to look a little closer, and she knew that you would fall under her spell."The reader is drawn through this grimy, noisy, bustling city following Robert Young and his friend the Captain of the guard, Charles Travers, as they try to solve the series of brutal murders. En route falling under the spell of Stuart Laing, his cast of wonderful characters, and the old city he loves so well.`A Pound Of Flesh' is an engrossing, enjoyable five star read, which I would recommend to anyone who has ever trodden the streets of Scotland's beautiful capital city.