Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton works for the Edinburgh police force in the last 1800s. Haunted by his own terrible past, he is currently on the case of a serial murderer who stalks the city's darker edges for victims, leaving their strangled bodies behind.

The book starts off well, but drags in the middle. We get many chapters from multiple points of view besides Hamilton: his superior, the victims, the people who discover the bodies, assorted friends and helpers of Hamilton, the murderer. This can be done well, but here it's not - there are too many characters and much of this just slows down the pace. And since we know (sort of) who the murderer is, we also know when Hamilton and the force are heading down the wrong path, which just makes you feel like the novel is marking time.

Lawrence also adds a ton of Hamilton's background into the story, either trying to give him depth, or setting him up for a series regular where he'll simultaneously be solving mysteries in his own life. But it's too much for one novel and just gets in the way of the story. There's a good mystery here, but it needs a lot of cleaning up.

The book is supposed to be a detective novel set in Edinburgh - a member of the Edinburgh Police is convinced that a fall from Arthur's Seat is not an accident or a suicide, but a murder, and from then on he believes all murders in the city are in fact the work of a serial killer. Interesting premise.
The book started off with a good atmosphere. However, as the chapters went on (and there's a lot of them, 1-10 pages each), I found myself wondering if I'm reading a detective novel, or a tour book. It seemed like the author felt the need to describe every cobble of Edinburgh in great detail, whether relevant or not, as if showing off their knowledge of the city. And it was unnecessary. I wanted to read the book as I found it interesting to read a murder mystery set in the city I live in, but I soon found myself sighing as literally every paragraph was full of references to Edinburgh streets, sights, and history. Had this been a historical epic, I would have been okay with it, but even Hugo did not include this much description of the locations in his books, and he was a wordy man for sure. I felt it unnecessary to mention how many minutes it took the characters to walk down one street to the next (especially when it was not crucial for them to make it in time somewhere), or to read a full page on the Heart of Midlothian, when it was just a piece of the street the MC walked past.
As for the plot, I knew who the killer was before my kindle told me I made it 50% through the book, so from then on, I thought I shall just focus on the "why", and the "how he'll be caught". Alas, the "why" never became clear, and the catching of the bad guy was due to a stupid juggling act, not the genius of the police. I felt a bit let down.
The characters seemed numerous enough, although most of them represented the typical tropes one might expect from a book of this genre.
All in all, it wasn't a bad book, I just found the writing style a bit too over the top in terms of the location descriptions, and the plot could have been a bit more nuanced at times, instead of spoon feeding the reader.
I might read the next book in the series, but I hope it won't describe every stone of every building in Edinburgh.

Beautifully and hauntingly written, I felt like I was in Edinburgh throughout the story.
Engaging characters and clever theme.

Just needed a bit more pace for me

As a new century approaches, Edinburgh is a city divided. The wealthy residents of New Town live in comfort, while Old Town’s cobblestone streets are clotted with criminals, prostitution, and poverty.

Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh’s darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park.

With little evidence, aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind. But the body count is rising. As newspapers spin tales of the “Holyrood Strangler,” panic sets in across the city. And with each victim, the murderer is getting closer to Hamilton, the one man who dares to stop him.

I’ve become quite the fan of the crime genre since I started The Eloquent Page. Over the years, I’ve found that it is mostly historic crime fiction that tends to catch my eye. The Victorian era seems to offer a particularly rich vein of ideas. There are many authors mining this period and creating some wonderful books. The latest to add to that list is Edinburgh Twilight by Carole Lawrence.

Front and centre, we have rookie detective, Ian Hamilton. A personal tragedy has set this young man on a very specific course. He has walked away from the potential of a more artistic career, and towards a job in Edinburgh’s burgeoning police force. It is quickly established that Hamilton is driven by a profound desire to uncover the truth at all costs. The Holyrood Strangler is his first case as lead detective, and he is keen to prove his worth. Hamilton has a tenacious approach to his work and steadfastly refuses to give up. Lawrence does a good job of capturing the internal jumble of conflicting emotions that exist within Hamilton. He is earnest and forthright in his opinions, but he is also still young and in some respects somewhat naïve. There is a very personal aspect to the plot that I liked. It is fascinating to watch as the investigation takes its toll on Hamilton.

There are a host of other characters who both help and hinder Hamilton during the course of his investigations; from the local pickpockets, card-sharps and heavies, to the other members of the force and even a resourceful librarian. There is a gambler called Rat Face who is particularly sleazy. I suppose when it comes to being a good detective, the more unscrupulous your underworld connections are, the better.

I have always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Edinburgh. Though I am originally west coast of Scotland, growing up just outside Glasgow for the curious amongst you, I used to venture to the city on a regular basis. Wandering around, even now, you can still get a sense of the old and the new coming together. Lawrence’s evocative writing captures the duality of this unique city’s character perfectly. Personally, I’ve always rather liked that Edinburgh has always had a dark underbelly. Though a little earlier in Edinburgh’s existence, real life criminals like the famous body-snatchers Burke and Hare, or the highwayman Deacon Brodie, have always conjured macabre, bloody images for me. I can easily appreciate that the city could be quite the muse when it comes to the genesis of crime fiction*.

The time-period also lends itself particularly well to the crime genre. Towards the end of the nineteenth century times were changing. The technical explosion of Industrial Revolution was drawing many from agricultural jobs in the countryside into the ever-growing metropolis. That increase in population would make it that much easier for a skilled predator to hide amongst the influx of new people. With all the comings and goings, individuals could disappear without a word and it would not be immediately obvious that anything untoward had occurred. This is one of the reasons why I think historic crime fiction excels over its modern counterpart. A detective, like Hamilton, is bound by the constraints of the age. The investigative process is that much more laborious and time consuming than I imagine it is now. The technology for solving crimes still very much in its infancy.

If you’ve read and enjoyed the Frey and McGray novels by Oscar de Muriel, The Strings of Murder and A Fever in the Blood, then I am sure you will appreciate Edinburgh Twilight. I can only hope that this is just the first novel to feature Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton. I’d love to be able to read more. If you like your crime fiction with a historical flavour then I would suggest that you give this a go.

My soundtrack choice to accompany Edinburgh Twilight is the suitably gruesome gem From Hell by Trevor Jones. It ticks all the right atmospheric boxes. The album has a classical tone, which ties in well with the setting for the book. While listening I found it dovetailed nicely with the novel and added an added sense of urgency to the plot which made the experience that much more enjoyable.

Edinburgh Twilight is published by Thomas & Mercer and is available now.

* As an aside, if you’ve never been and you ever get the chance to go, I can thoroughly recommend Edinburgh. It’s a beautiful city with a fascinating history that any bibliophile would enjoy. The chances of running into a serial killer nowadays are much reduced so you probably don’t need to worry too much about that

A first novel in what could turn into a series set in Edinburgh in the late 19th century. DI Ian Hamilton a young policeman is convinced a death in Holyrood is murder and convinces his grumpy DCI to let him chase this one through. The victim a young man has little of importance in his pockets but there is an unusual playing card. A series of murders ensues and each victim has a similar playing card on their person. As the case unfolds so does a merry band appear who will work with Hamilton now and presumably into the future. The characters are well drawn but I found the storyline slow in some parts but I did persevere and was rewarded at the end. This book has paved the way for a series of detective stories based on careful sleuthing.

I enjoyed this and look forward to more in the series (I hope). The characters are interesting. The feel for old Edinburgh is really nice.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read this book early

Background summary
This book is set in Edinburgh in 1881 where there is a murderer on the loose whose killing style is to strangle people along with a calling card of leaving a playing card with dancing skeletons on.... It's up to Detective Ian Hamilton and the rest of the Edinburgh Constabulary to catch them.

Thoroughly enjoyable read and very much looking forward to reading part 2 of this series, I wonder how it will carry on. A different detective mystery book using historical methods including the old brain cells to solve crimes instead of having the use of modern forensic science methods such as DNA. This made for a nice change and made the book stand out for me.

Just a warning to anyone wanting to read this book there is quite a dark nature to the murderer. Yeah okay I understand he is a murderer but it was something different and not expecting the author to do. The thing is his character also gets sexually aroused each time they kill. So be prepared for some graphic sexual moments. However I didn't mind this as I found it made the character more realistic because sadly this does happen in real life.

Definitely well worth a read.

Before this book, it had been quite awhile since a book truly hooked me from the start. Edinburgh Twilight managed to draw me in immediately with its whodunnit mystery and fantastic writing. I love the way that Carole Lawrence wrote her dialogue, with all of the character's accents on display (in a very readable way). I would love to see her style sheet! It must be incredibly long :) I really enjoyed following along as Edinburgh's Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton worked to solve the crimes that popped up in his city. I can't wait to pick up another book by Carole Lawrence.

I wanted to read this book just based on its cover. The picture and the title grabbed my attention and I hoped the story would hold my interest just as much. Happily, it did! Though there were a few slow parts that didn't seem to do much to further the plot, I found it hard to put this book down. I'm a big fan of mysteries, though the ones I normally read are set in present day, so it was a really interesting change for me to read one set over 130 years ago, and in Scotland, no less! It was also a change for me to read a book with a male protagonist. Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is a fascinating character with a complicated family history. He can be altogether too serious and focused on his job, which makes for a great detective. The supporting characters are pretty well developed and realistic, especially when you remember the time and setting of the story. There are hints and clues throughout the story about the culprit, but not too much to give anything away to the reader or the detectives on the case. I'm really excited that this is the first in a series, as I'm really interested in reading more!

There’s something deliciously grim about this novel – set in the days where Edinburgh was even more gothic than it is today. There’s murder, mystery and something almost Sherlockian about it all. Cloak and dagger stuff with more monsters hiding in the shadows than you know what to do with.

It’s the early days of police work and so the basics are only just falling into place – only years before the Jack the Ripper murders would shock the world, the dark, dank streets of Edinburgh seem to have been the ones to fear.

The setting was like a fog of mystery which immersed me into the novel and seeped into my very bones. Edinburgh is brilliantly evoked and cleverly recreated on the page – some good research having gone on here and I wouldn’t be surprised if the author hasn’t been on a few ghost tours.

There was depth to this novel without the gloom of the gothic city however and the subject matter of a character’s homosexuality was something I’d not read about in this way before in a historical novel. There’s scenes of sex and dubious goings on but done in a unique way which adds another level to the overall plot.

And then there’s the rest of the Scottish flavour – the whisky, the bad weather, the Firth of Forth and the accent/dialect and unique language of the city.
A book to cuddle up beside the fire in one way, but with a red hot poker at the ready in another

Greatly atmospheric, this murder mystery set in late Victorian Edinburgh is a worthwhile addition to the crime genre. Our detective in charge DI Ian Hamilton is an adult haunted by the death of his parents in a fatal fire in which he cowered in an enclosed space to survive..
When a well dressed young man is found dead at the foot of Arthur's Seat, both we and Hamilton suspect foul play. There are some interesting characters along the way including Hamilton's elderly aunt, who can turn her hand to some excellent forensic photography and other policemen who help - and sometimes hinder - Hamilton's investigations.
There is also the social history aspect, well explored by the author, of a developing city, with its wealth rubbing alongside poverty and disease and the depths to which human nature can descend when lives swirl out of control.
I liked the novel and warmed to the solitary Hamilton, ploughing his course through new developments in homicide on his doorstep. I guess there might be more novels but it will take a steady hand to top this first one.

1881, Edinburgh and Stephen Wycherly walks up Athur's Seat to meet his blackmailer, not knowing he will never return.
On examining the the body Detectibe Inspector Hamilton determines he has been murdered, and so the hunt is on for the Holyrood Strangler, aided by Detective Sergeant Dickerson.
A well-written mystery with good developed characters. An excellent start to a new series which I look forward to reading.

The writing of this novel was very good, I found myself enjoying the differences in dialogue and dialect that one could clearly tell from the character's speech. The setting was very well done and the author clearly did her research on the subject.
The novel was really good in the beginning but I found myself becoming bored towards the middle and the end. It didn't have the same appeal as the beginning did. I felt that some characters were irrelevant and didn't add anything to the story (the librarian after he had helped Ian.) It also felt too drawn out to be suspenseful. I didn't feel as if there was much suspense. Even in the last few scenes when Ian finds the killer.
I felt that there were a few topics that the author didn't feel comfortable breaching (the death of Ian's parents and certain character's sexuality.) but since this is the first book in what I am assuming is a series, I could see this coming out later in another book.

Very atmospheric historical procedural! Try this one if you enjoy books set in another time and place- in this case 1881 Edinburgh. This is a great introduction into what looks as though it will be a good series as Ian, the protagonist, is a young man. He's chasing a very sick killer with the able assistance of his aunt Lillian (she's a hoot) and his colleagues, some of whom are better than others. You will read some of the story from the killer's perspective and beware that this has some dark and ugly parts. It's well written and plotted and genuinely entertaining. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I read this in the summer but it would be especially good to read on a rainy day.

Just one more book that I couldn't finish. I am so tired of picking up an book that appears to be interesting and then have it spoiled for me. The characters in the first chapters were very interesting and I was getting quite attached to the story line. Then it took a turn that so many modern novels take - we have to have a prominent homosexual character and the mixed messages that come with him in this book. He desires other men, but then has self-loathing at his own actions. After his first murder (of another homosexual) he becomes aroused by murder and I just don't need to spend my time on such gargbage.

The characters were well-developed and interesting, but I didn't finish the book because there was a fair amount of bad language and graphic sexual scenes. The killer was sexually aroused by killing, so we got a graphic masturbation scene and I quit at the scene of him picking up a male partner at a bar. At halfway through, Ian is doggedly asking questions but hasn't gotten very far in solving the mystery. As we have scenes from the killers POV, I think I know who it is, however it's realistic that Ian hasn't guessed. The book wasn't bad in terms of writing, but it's not a book that I care to read.

I really enjoy books, films and tv programmes set in Edinburgh - it is the only city I have lived in and I love to read or see references to places I know there. So I was excited to read this book, which is set in Edinburgh in 1881.

This detective fiction is centred on Detective Inspector Ian Carmichael Hamilton, a young Highlander in Edinburgh. He is given an interesting back story along with a troubled brother and Glaswegian aunt. Other characters include fellow policemen Sergeant William Chester Dickerson and DCI Robert Lyle Crawford, and ten-year-old street urchin Derek McNair (who is a wonderful character). We are given details about the lives of all of these characters as they support Hamilton in his bid to capture a serial killer.

Here's where I get really pedantic because I think some minor editing would help this novel hugely. I had some problems with the book. First was the setting, which did not always make sense or seem authentically Victorian. I am still puzzling over Hamilton's appearance in Fleshmarket Close when he was walking from George IV Bridge to his flat in Victoria Terrace: why the detour? Am I missing something? Then there was the dialogue, we have characters from different places in Scotland and England but the dialogue didn't read quite true for me: for example, did Glaswegian bartenders in Victorian Edinburgh drop their aitches? "'At's as may be - seen 'im 'ere afore, though". And I am no expert in French but there was a newspaper headline which I think needs proof-read by a French speaker. Finally, I was a little bemused at the use of British to mean English: eg 'his accent was British, exaggeratedly well-bred' and 'the Scots were less formal than the British': 'the British' included Scots, this was the age of empire in which Scots were involved as enthusiastically as English, and an Edinburgh distillery opened only four years later calling itself the North British distillery (later still the North British Hotel opened in Edinburgh).

These little niggles took me out of the story, making me less involved and invested in the characters and plot which is a pity. A few minor changes would help make this novel much more gripping and enjoyable.

This is the first book of DI Ian Hamilton story which laid in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1881. The serial murderer cases begin from a young man who is discovered dead in the Hollywood Park, makes it look like he somehow fell from a trail. While detective is struggling to acquire the evidence except an unique and enigmatic playing card left on each cases, the Hollywood Strangler's victims are rising at a smacking pace.

DI Ian Hamilton is very attractive character who is well educated and likes to quote from Shakespeare and Robert Burns books. He became a detective by his parents' tragic death in fire and he is still hunted by the trauma and feels indignation against his brother who left him behind.

This is well thought and marvellously written story. The author gives you good details that decorates scenes, besides makes the characters more likable and comprehensive. As you read, the connection of characters get deeper and even more enjoyable. I especially fond of an urchin, Derek McNair who lend a hand to DI Ian.

" There was so much evil in a man, one hardly knew where to begin..."

The thrill of story hugely gripped me.
The investigation in that time around, without modern science made it slow and difficult to discover the evidence, even killing is very fast pace, the detectives have to use their own legwork. I felt their impatience as if its were myself.

What made me additionally attached to this story is the history background, how this story describes the life and situation such as rampancy of diseases and disparity of wealth in that age, even I got interest to the history of England and Scotland, owing to Ian's aunt. I enjoyed and felt the noise and rustiness in that term in Edinburgh.

I have this book 4.5 stars.
It's a brilliant start of the series and I can't wait to read next sequel, meanwhile I need to read this one again!

Set in Edinburgh at the close of the 1800’s, Edinburgh Twilight is the story of a serial killer and the police inspector who is trying to find him. Inspector Ian Hamilton is a complicated character, fiercely dedicated to his job, but with a conflicted past that continues to haunt him. Several of the side characters add to the charms of this novel, including Hamilton’s boss, his assistant, and the street urchin who helps him solve the case. I look forward to more Ian Hamilton mysteries.

Set in Edinburgh in 1881 this book, which purports to be the first in the Ian Hamilton series, has parallels to a Charles Todd Ian Rutledge mystery. Ms. Lawrence has created a protagonist, Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton who enjoys quoting Shakespeare and to a lesser extent, Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland. Dueling quotes between Hamilton and his superior DCI Crawford are interspersed throughout the book and serve as an interesting and entertaining distraction. Our young Detective Inspector has a dry wit and uses it to his best advantage even when he is taking a beating. I truly loved the conversations that he had with the mouse who had taken up residence in his flat.

This book contains all things Scottish including the inevitable bottle of single malt, many references to the Fifth of Forth and the weather that can be cold, wet, rainy and miserable. If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting Edinburgh you will recognize many of he places mentioned even over a hundred years later.

The story was well constructed, intriguing and fast paced. The characters were interesting and I hope the survivors are included in future books in the series. The major downside for me were the needless, heavy and wordy descriptions that were better suited to a poem than a murder mystery. This was just short of four stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer Publishers for an ARC