In Place of Fear - Catriona McPherson
A new author for me but one whose books I plan to read more of.
The book is set in Edinburgh in 1948, at the birth of the NHS. The main character, Helen is about to start a new job as a Medical Almoner, which is a welfare role within the doctor’s practice. Working alongside two doctors, Helen makes home visits to patients, giving them advice and ensuring that they get the help they need – a role similar to the combination of a modern-day social worker and a health visitor. Her family don’t seem happy that she’s even working, never mind with two male doctors. They believe that a married woman should be having babies and staying at home. There is also the inverted snobbery attitude that she is trying to rise above her station in life, and girls like her from the poor tenements should be working in factories like her mother.
When Helen stumbles across a dead body, she finds her herself investigating the murkier side of life. It seems people will stop at nothing to prevent scandal, and only Helen cares enough to try to get justice for the dead young woman.
It’s quite hard to categorise this book, which is part social history, part murder mystery. I rather liked the fact that it didn’t feel similar to other books, and that it found room for both social commentary about the plight of the poor and the general attitude towards women, as well as a cleverly constructed tale about the murky, sinister and sometimes deadly side of mid-C20th Edinburgh.
It's a fascinating combination with a good cast of characters and a great deal to discover about attitudes to women, the class system, homosexuality, and the birth of the NHS.
The use of Scottish dialect was interesting and added character and authenticity, but unfortunately my ARC didn’t have a glossary so some of it was incomprehensible. Assuming there will be one in the standard version.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

It took me a while to settle with the kind of typical cliches - the girl from the unlikely and disapproving family who is embarking on a career- in this case, health services - to go on her own to a city - in this case in Scotland - where events lead up to her sussing out a murder, and figuring it out in unlikely ways. .. heavy dialect to begin with nearly put me off! So it’s okay - not quite my cup of tea but a worthy effort … I didn’t get very far after the middle tbh

This is not my usual type of book and I had to plod through the rather lengthy introduction and background in the hopes it would get better.

It attempts to tackle the misogynistic attitudes of post war Britain and a lot of focus on the ‘birth of the NHS’.

I like McPherson’s writing style and it was fairly easy to read, just not my sort of book!

I had read one other book by the author before and really liked her style, and when this came around, I wanted to give it a shot.
The main problem I had with the book was that it felt slow. Everything seemed to be happening at a glacial pace. I still enjoyed the writing and the people, but I am not the kind of person who can pace herself for a long time.
It is Edinburgh, and it is post-World War. The women are being sent back home to resume their positions at the helm of household affairs and nothing else. In this complex environment, an official paid position has been made for a woman to coordinate between the regular medical professionals and the regular well-being of women. It was all quite interesting. If the murder and the subsequent investigation were part of another subsequent book to this, I might have enjoyed them both better.
It was not hard to see the possibilities of who the killer was, at least of the immediate issue. There are so many people hiding so many things that our leading lady is getting quite paranoid. She does not know who to trust but continues to keep doing her job to the best of her ability. This is in spite of the ferocious opposition she faces from everyone connected to her.
There is a lot to unpack in this kind of book. It will be great to dissect this with a couple of people in a book club setting. I still recommend this to readers who like historical mysteries with different settings and a lot of patience. The author's writing was good enough to keep me coming back every time I wanted a break which is why I would still recommend it to interested people.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is based on my own reading experience.

In Edinburgh, 1948. Helen Crowther leaves her crowded tenement for her own office in a doctor's surgery. She is aware of other people’s opinions and disapproval- ‘Upstart, ungrateful, out of your depth’ - but she’s determined to take part in this incredible new service that will help so many people. She's not even settled in when she blunders into a murder. Even though Edinburgh is the most respectable of cities, no one wants to stand up for justice, but Helen is determined to find the killer. She’s taken into a world she didn’t know existed, it’s darker than her own as hard as her own can be. Disapproval is now the least of her worries. Helen, known as Nelly, takes on a newly created position within the NHS, as a Medical Welfare Almoner. This was a position based within the free hospitals that is the forerunner to a hospital social worker. The very first almoner in the U.K. was Mary Stewart, appointed at the Royal Free Hospital of central London in 1895. The Royal Free was a charitable hospital and gave free medical treatment to those patients considered morally deserving, but unable to afford medical care. An Almoner would means test patient to ensure that only those deemed “appropriate” received free medical treatment. However, Stewart slowly reshaped her role of and fashioned the position into a medical social worker, referring patients to other means of medical and charitable assistance, visiting patients' homes, and training almoners for positions at other voluntary hospitals.

Nelly is there in the role’s infancy and while she’s still finding her bearings in her new job she begins to notices that all is not as it should be. Nelly isn’t the type of person to brush things under the carpet, so she starts to investigate. There is so much more there than she expects, especially when a body is found in the garden of the house she’s been living in as part of her employment. Even then her curiosity about cause of death and any motive pushes her to carry on investigating, even if it puts her in danger. I felt like I really understood Nelly. I loved her no-nonsense attitude and her dogged refusal to let things go. She wants to make a difference to the patients she sees at the hospital and it was fascinating to be taken back to the birth of the NHS and see how it was implemented. New patients had no idea what help they were entitled to and no-one, even those working in it, fully knew how it worked. I thought that the title was a clever nod to Aneurin Bevan's own book of the same name.

The mystery was clever and well paced, it kept me reading and surprised me at times, but it wasn’t my favourite part of the novel. I’m used to Edinburgh based stories taking me to the university and male dominated academia, which also suggests people of a certain class. The author focuses on the blue collar, working people of the city. We see a generation and class still struggling in the aftermath of war. This is the beginning of universal health care; health for everyone, not just those who can afford it. The writer gripped me from page one by bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of this point and place in time. As someone who has needed the NHS more than most, I found it so interesting to see how it began from a character working on the frontline and making tough decisions.

After World War Two and at the start of the new national health service our heroine fights to find her place in this new world. A murder to solve ,lots of twists. A good read.

Interesting mystery in an unusual historical setting, at the start of the NHS. Plenty of tension and plot twists. Enough dialect to give a Scottish feel but it was understandable.

This is the first novel I've read by the author and I found it to be an enjoyable and informative read. Set in post war Edinburgh during the early years of the NHS it is both a social history and a mystery although I would say that the mystery element is not central to the novel. Helen Crowther is a medical almoner working with two GPs who becomes involved in investigating the death of a young woman. Helen is a great heroine, balancing work, family responsibilities and sleuthing. The use of the strong Scottish dialect took me a while to get used to once I did the novel flowed well.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.
3.5 stars

A standalone title from Catriona, very different to Dandy Gilver. Fascinating insight into the very first days of the NHS. Very good at keeping the reader guessing who the murderer was and some very strong characters. The ending felt a bit rushed.

Set at a key point in history, newly-married Helen has been appointed medical almoner working with two doctors in Edinburgh. Her husband was a POW during the War and has come back a changed man, and they are living with her sharp-tongued mother and father. The National Health Service is about to be introduced, so Helen will be one of the first in her new role, persuading the poor that the NHS can help them, without charge, and its not charity.

She sets too with a will, and is such an endearing and human person that many who would not have welcomed a well-to-do do-gooder will talk to Helen. However, her parents throw them out, not approving of her working now she's married, but the doctors offer the couple a flat. From there, Helen is drawn into a world where evil reigned, the rich took no responsibility and the poor paid the price.

A fascinating read, made brilliant by the accents people speak; I really felt I was transported to Edinburgh in the forties. The small prejudices, the worry about 'what people will think', the poverty and grime. Excellent - can't wait to find more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a new author to me and I have really enjoyed being submerged into post WW2 Edinburgh right at the start of the NHS. I do not know if this is the start of a series but I would definitely like to accompany the main character as she solves other murders. Clearly no accident that the author has borrowed Nye Bevan's book title. don't get confused on purchase!! Thanks to Netgalley.

In picking up ”In Place of Fear” by Catriona McPherson, I expected Call The Midwife meets Miss Marple. What I got was a deeply moving, insightful murder mystery story set in post-war Scotland through the eyes of medical almoner at the launch of national health.

Our leading lady is incredibly relatable despite her world being radically different. I love her no-nonsense, care-filled approach as she encourages old and young to make use of the new healthcare services. On her journey around the town, she stumbles across a body and despite asking sensible questions, everyone keeps giving her odd and unbelievable answers. Not easily swayed, she digs deeper and uncovers more and more about the underworld of the city.

Amongst her work and her investigations, there is also her family to deal with. Her husband has shell shock and is uncommunicative with her and her mother is emotionally abusive, her father absent.

There are twists and turns throughout and each character is carefully created to elicit feelings in the reader, it’s beautifully done!

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is at times brutal and harsh but the mystery is good and there are plenty of good moments throughout. It’s a four out of five on the enJOYment scale and is highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from Hodder & Stoughton through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Set in Edinburgh in 1948, during the first days of the NHS, Helen Crowther is a medical almoner who becomes embroiled in a mystery when the dead body of a young woman is found in the Anderson Shelter of her new house, granted her by the Doctors she is working for at the nearby surgery.
This was an engaging mix of social history and a murder mystery. Helen is an intrepid young woman, not afraid to cast out on her own and pursue the investigation. She is from a tough working household where no inch is given or taken. Her husband Sandy was a PoW for most of WW2 and his experiences colour their marriage, in ways that Helen didn’t expect.
As the cast of characters increases, the mystery develops and extends around the people living and working in the area near the surgery.
My only niggle was that there was slightly too much authentic dialogue. It was hard going working out what the characters were saying at different points and writing a bit less phonetically would have helped but that is really only a minor gripe in an otherwise engaging and interesting story.

Catriona McPherson is an author I’ve wanted to try for a while and her latest novel, In Place of Fear, turned out to be a good one for me to start with; it’s a fascinating historical mystery set in Edinburgh just after World War II.

It’s 1948 and Helen Crowther is about to start a new job as medical almoner for the newly formed National Health Service. Working alongside two doctors, Dr Deuchar and Dr Strasser, Helen will be making home visits to patients, giving them advice and ensuring that they get the help they need – a role similar to a modern-day social worker. She’s looking forward to the new job, but at the same time she knows there are going to be difficulties: first of all, she will have to convince the disbelieving public that healthcare under the new NHS really is free and they no longer need to worry about paying for their treatment; she also has to contend with the disapproval of her mother, who wishes she would get a job in a factory like other working class women. It comes as a relief when Dr Strasser offers Helen the upstairs flat in an empty building he owns, so that she and her husband, Sandy, can move out of her parents’ overcrowded house at last.

Helen’s marriage has not been a particularly happy one so far; Sandy has spent several years in a POW camp and since returning to Scotland has been struggling to cope with married life. Helen hopes the situation will improve now that they can be alone together, but just as she and Sandy are beginning to settle into their new home, she discovers the body of a young woman in the air raid shelter in the garden! The doctor is summoned and after examining the body he decides that it was suicide, but Helen is not convinced. Who is this young woman and how did she die? Helen is determined to find out, even though everyone else seems equally determined to cover up what has happened.

The mystery aspect of this novel takes a while to get started and never really becomes the main focus of the book until near the end when Helen begins to uncover some secrets that have remained hidden for several years. However, I thought it was a very intriguing mystery and although I had my suspicions as to who the culprit might be, I was unable to guess the other parts of the solution. Looking at other reviews of the book, it seems that a lot of readers were disappointed that the crime element wasn’t stronger but this didn’t really bother me as I was finding it so interesting to read about life in 1940s Edinburgh and the beginnings of the NHS. There’s also a heavy use of Scottish dialect which I suppose people will either like or they won’t, but I thought it added to the strong sense of time and place and I found it easy enough to follow what was being said.

A lot of time is spent on Helen’s visits to people in the community, particularly young mothers and those who are hoping to become mothers, so that she can advise them on diet and hygiene and make sure they are receiving the medical care they’re entitled to. I wasn’t familiar with the role of medical almoners before reading this book, so I found it fascinating to learn about what the job involved. Before 1948, the almoner would assess patients to decide how much they could afford to pay, but with the birth of a health service that was ‘free at the point of use’ this became unnecessary and the almoner could devote more time to actually helping the patients with their medical and welfare needs. However, Helen sometimes goes above and beyond what is required and sometimes she makes mistakes or is seen as interfering in things that are none of her business. It was watching her going about her daily work and trying to decide how to handle each difficult situation that I found particularly enjoyable, so it didn’t matter to me that the mystery was so slow to develop.

I loved this and would like to try more of Catriona McPherson’s books.

'Edinburgh, 1948. Helen Crowther leaves a crowded tenement home for her very own office in a doctor's surgery. Upstart, ungrateful, out of your depth - the words of disapproval come at her from everywhere but she's determined to take her chance and play her part.'

She's barely begun when she stumbles discovers a murdered young woman and learns that, in this most respectable of cities, no one will fight for justice at the risk of scandal. As Helen resolves to find a killer, she's propelled into a darker world than the one she knew existed. Disapproval is the least of her worries now. We follow Helen, known as Nelly, when she takes on a newly created position within the NHS, as a Medical Welfare Almoner (I had to look that up!)
Whilst finding her bearings in her new job she begins to notices things. All is not as it should be. Not being one to just leave it alone, Nelly starts to investigate, opening up a can of worms, only for a body to be found in the garden of the house she has been allowed to live in as part of her employment. She can't believe the reasons why or cause of death, so carries on investigating, even though it will put her in danger.
I really liked Nelly, with her no-nonsense attitude to life, her refusal to let things lie. She really wants to make a difference and to take on the world. I was also really interested in the birth of the NHS and how it was implemented at its beginning.
On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, only two things bothered me to begin with; I did find that as Nelly has a strong Scottish accent in the book and the way it is written could present some challenges to the reader to begin with. I soon got used to this however.
Secondly, the information about the birth of the NHS was fascinating, particularly the way in which people didn't know to what they were entitled, and no-one really knew how it worked. But none of this information contributed to the mystery and became a bit superfluous. Similarly, the relationship between Sandy, Nelly and her family felt unnecessary.
The mystery itself was clever, well plotted and expertly executed, keeping the reader on their toes. I also loved the nod to Aneurin Bevan's own book of the same name, on Democratic Socialism and the creation of Welfare State.
My thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for my digital ARC.

I have read most of Catriona McPherson's series featuring Dandy Gilver, which I really enjoy. This is quite different in tone and approach, where the 'mystery' isn't really that central to the book. As ever, however, the historical atmosphere is well written, and some of the details of the creation of the NHS were certainly eye-opening. An interesting and absorbing read, with Edinburgh as a wonderful backdrop in all its beauty and squalor. A strong 3 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A solid novel (the first in a series?) set in post-war Edinburgh, with a murder mystery in it but which also encompasses the birth of the NHS, moving from private, paid care to free healthcare for the population, with the protagonist, Helen Crowther, starting a new job as an almoner within this new world. I had no idea what an almoner was, but enjoyed the story around Helen as she navigated herself and her clients into the system.

It's not a fast paced story by any means, and a lot of stuff happens around the murder to sort of 'clog' it up so I'm not sure 'gripping' is the word I'd use to describe this. The use of colloquial Edinburgh accents also slowed the pace a bit, although make sense in some of the contexts. It's not consistent, however, so some parts move a bit faster than others.

Helen is bright and curious and along with trying to convince people that the NHS is a great idea, is dealing with issues within her marriage to Sandy, who has returned from the war with some demons that trouble him and ultimately their marriage.

The mystery was overall well done, and I did enjoy it once I got going with it. I was a little confused at the end, however, once everything had wrapped up, with the introduction of a new character and I had to read it twice to understand what was going on.

Ultimately, though, if this is the first of a new series, I am looking forward to the next in the series. I enjoyed the story and the visit to the Edinburgh of the late 1940s.

Catriona McPherson is a new author to me and I was positively impressed by this read.

The format, part historical fiction and part murder mystery, is very enjoyable, as is the setting, 1948 Edinburgh and the main character, Helen.
Plot and pacing are perfect, the mystery is engaging and keeps you always interested, the writing style is very good. All in all there's nothing I didn't like about this book and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In Place of Fear is a great read, I love books written in the vernacular and have noticed some reviewers had difficulties understanding the text, which is understandable. I find through using the language as spoken by the characters makes the story believable. Anyway, the story is set in the late 1940s after the war in Edinburgh. Helen is a medical almoner working in a doctor's practice at the inception of the National Health Service. The author focuses initially on the massive changes which was happening after the war years and on the cusp of modern healthcare as we know it today. Helen is married to a soldier who came home a different man and living with her parents and sister in a tenement house- working class people with their attendant issues are her priority and it was fascinating to learn how difficult it was for these communities to accept free health and social care that wasn't charity. Although this narrative takes up a lot of the book, it is important to put the crime and her marital problems into the context of the environment and issues of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed In Place of Fear, it is interesting, exciting and well written. I highly recommend this book and thank Netgalley, the publishers and Catriona McPherson. Five well deserved stars.

I have unfortunately given up on reading this book as I struggled to get to 25%. I feel I can sum up the story so far in a couple of paragraphs, not much happens. I also found the protagonist irritatingly immature for a married young lady. The other factor which irked me was the stilted style of writing. I am half Scottish, however, I am not fluent in reading Scottish dialect and with so much of it, my reading pace was affected, therefore resulting in me losing interest. Sadly, this is not a book for me, I would however suggest it to my mum to read as she may enjoy the story and dialect being more used to it than myself.