In Place of Fear - Set in Edinburgh just after WWII. Great read, especially with the birth of the NHS and the view surrounding it. Kept me hooked, highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot...

This was an interesting read, being a period drama that encompasses social history, a murder, and a more deep-rooted and sinister plot.

I found the descriptions of the living conditions at the time very sad - likewise the lingering effects of the war, and the social attitudes towards women, pregnancy, illegitemacy, and work (particularly by married women). I guess it gives a measure of the progress that's been made in healthcare, childcare etc (though even now there is more to be done!).

There are some excellent characters in this novel. Our heroine, Helen, is realistic and well drawn, determined to pursue her goals and help others. The snooty Mrs Sinclair was also well characterised, likewise Helen's parents, and Sandy. Helen was a remarkably tolerant and forward thinking woman for the times.

My only criticism is that the ending felt a little rushed, other than that, a great read, and I'll look out for other titles from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

The beginning of the UK's National Health Service is an interesting historical time, so I was excited to see a historical mystery centered on a woman beginning her career as a medical almoner. And this clean, minimalistic cover was definitely eye catching!

Newly wed Helen is excited to start her job working for a couple of doctors under the beginnings of the NHS. She may end up in over her head when she's dealing with reluctant patients, grouchy doctors, and a girl found dead in the lower level of her new house.

This did a great job at setting the scene of post war England. And we get an immediate sense of Helen and what she values. She’s an interesting character, but the mystery she was trying to solve was less so. The story has a pretty slow pace throughout, there was no sense of urgency. And I didn’t Redwall you manage to connect everything until it got spelled out in the last 5%.

This is more of a personal dislike than anything else, but I’ve never been fond of writing out accents phonetically. And writing accents out in addition to using colloquialisms I can’t recognize meant I had to reread a lot of the dialogue, trying to piece together with context clues.

The hidden underworld of post-war Edinburgh at the inception of the NHS is captured in the story's prologue eloquently. Helen starts her new role as a Medical Almoner for the NHS. Her parents are suspicious of her new job and the service it represents. The discovery of a body is devastating for Helen, but no one seems interested, and her sense of justice and enquiring mind make her decide to investigate what happened.

Helen is a pioneering and pivotal character in this historical mystery and easy to like. Post-war Edinburgh affords the mystery atmosphere and poignancy making it an engaging read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

My thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an invitation to read this book via NetGalley.

In Place of Fear is a piece of historical fiction, and a mystery set in post-World-War-II Edinburgh against the backdrop of the introduction of the NHS. Our protagonist Helen Crowther is a young woman, about to begin a new job as a medical almoner—someone who convinces and helps people sign up for the NHS, helps fill forms for the various things they need, spreads awareness on nutrition and basic health, and even checks in on houses to determine living conditions including hygiene. Helen is nervous but excited about her job, but her mother is strongly opposed, seeming to think that Helen is merely using it as an excuse for ‘dolling up’ rather than that she actually wants the job. Helen’s mother, Greet works at a bottling factory while her father works at a slaughter house; they live in a poorer quarter of town and think Helen is perhaps reaching beyond her station. Helen has been married to her childhood sweetheart, Sandy for two years, but the scars of the war on Sandy mean there are difficulties in their relationship, and he seems to be fighting some demons of his own. Helen is determined to prove that she can do well at her job, and on the very first day also finds herself offered a small home for her use by the doctors at whose clinic she is based.

As she starts her job, we see the various problems that she has to deal with from reticent people to downright hostile ones, with some cases revealing the plight of those in the poorer quarters. There are also those who are wary of the NHS itself, looking upon it as charity to which they are unwilling to sign on. Meanwhile as Helen and Sandy move in to their new home, the very first day, in the Anderson shelter beneath their home, she finds the body of a young woman. The doctor determines it is suicide, but thinking back over it, Helen isn’t convinced. Once she starts to look into the matter, she finds almost everyone wanting to brush it under the carpet. But why? Who was the young woman and why was she killed?

This was an interesting read but rather different from what was promised by its description as ‘a gripping new historical crime novel’.

I enjoyed getting a look into the initial days of the NHS. I had no idea that there was so much reluctance on many people’s part to actually accept the service, or that they saw it as charity which they didn’t feel right accepting, and how much convincing it took to get them to sign on. I had also never heard of a medical almoner before so it was interesting to get to know about the position and what the person employed had to do. And it certainly wasn’t a simple job—filling forms was the least of their duties, there had to be a connect, a sense of comfort with the people they were dealing with so that they would open up about their problems, as well as the ability to handle the more difficult ones—especially when the problem involved touched a raw nerve. Set as this was amongst the poorer quarters of Edinburgh, one gets a glimpse into life in these spaces, the problems and dangers that many had to face, as well as prevalent mores and viewpoints (which prominently included confining women to traditional roles, and to work in only certain acceptable jobs, but with the primary role being of wives and mothers).

The mystery itself isn’t quite at the centre of the story for most part of the book. The body is found only about a fourth of the way into the book, and after some initial confusion, it is something that Helen thinks about but only starts beginning to look into after some time. In her investigations, if Helen is daring and has a strong sense of justice, she also mostly comes across as rather naïve as well. Agreed that she is young, but the way she simply walks in and confronts those that she suspects of wrongdoing or plans to seems a little foolish, considering a murder is involved. Even in her duties as an almoner, she seems to struggle and trip up a little more than one would expect her to, considering she has been assisting a wealthy lady, Mrs Sinclair, with similar duties previously (and which led to her getting trained and getting this job).

The whodunit (as least part of it) was something I felt one could guess from quite early on, from the way certain things were playing out—the clues were fairly strong—but there was also an element which I didn’t work out. The why and what was involved in the plot on the other hand we find out only as we read on. There were some surprises in the plot which I didn’t quite see coming, both relating to the mystery and other threads of the story.

The book uses Scottish dialect quite extensively which had both its pros and cons. While on the one hand, it added a definite sense of authenticity, on the other it was also hard/slow to read. And then again, the fact that the dialect wasn’t used when say, describing Helen’s thoughts, felt a bit of a mismatch though I can understand why this would have been done. There’s no easy answer to this one really.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I think rather than the mystery itself, the look into life in the poorer quarters of Edinburgh in the post-war period, and the initial days of the NHS were aspects I found most interesting. Helen’s life and family and her experiences at work were likewise very readable. This is not to say that the mystery was bad as such—it was engaging enough, but the fact that it wasn’t quite the focus of the book, Helen naivety in handling it, and to an extent, the seedier elements that the solution involved, didn’t make it as enjoyable for me as I’d expected.

3.25 stars

Helen is a newly appointed almoner. She is so looking forward to her job but knows that there are many
obstacles. She herself comes from a working class background and knows that females working in jobs like
this is not something quite acceptable from people amongst her peers. She also knows that those are the very
people she has to work with.

Thrown out of her home by her mother who thinks this will be the ultimate challenge to get her to change her
ways, Helen lucks out when she and her husband Sandy are offered a beautiful home to live in whilst doing her
job. She has never lived in such a "posh" house and is determined to make a go of the job, so as not to lose
this home as well.

Finding a dead body in the shed at the end of the property on the first day she moved in was not the beginning
she envisaged and discovering that it is her mentor's daughter (or so she thought as the resemblance was uncanny)
was also strange and too much of a coincidence. It set off an enquiry on Helen's part because she felt that there
was a conspiracy on the part of everyone around her including her boss to cover up the tracks of who this woman
is, and to just assign her to a list of Jane Doe's and forget about it.

The story apart from the murders, is very descriptive in the lives of Edinburgh citizens of the 1940s. The class
divide so very strong, that that in itself seems to be a story of its own.

Good reading.

The book has some really fascinating information about the birth of the NHS and the difficulty of overcoming people’s disbelief that health services are now free. I had not come across the role of a medical almoner before and it took me a little while to work out exactly what it comprised. The author certainly succeeds in depicting what life was like for the poorer inhabitants of Edinburgh: living in crowded and often insanitary housing, existing on poor diets and lacking knowledge of how to prevent common diseases. The theme of women’s health, infertility and motherhood run throughout the book.

In the opening chapters, we learn a lot about Helen’s family and their domestic background. Helen’s determination to forge a career meets with opposition from her mother who can’t see why she would want to do anything other than start a family with her husband, Sandy. Unfortunately, there’s a big stumbling block to this, the nature of which Helen won’t fully understand until later in the book. In the meantime, she’s just patiently trying to help Sandy recover from his experiences as a prisoner-of-war. He is reluctant to talk about what he went through in any detail but it has left him with a fear of enclosed spaces.

The use of Scottish dialect, although giving authenticity, did impair my reading experience. (I appreciate this would not be the case for Scottish readers.) Sentences like, ‘She couldn’t stop the weans from palling around the back greens and the front streets, although she told Helen not to give killycodes if she could help it’ left me mystified and had me searching online for clarification. There were phrases I didn’t know the meaning of – drookit (soaking wet, drenched) or hackit (ugly) – and others that had a different meaning to the one I was used to – bunker (a table top or kitchen counter) or press (cupboard).

For me, the book never really lived up to the publisher’s description of ‘gripping’. The mystery element unfolds really slowly although it takes some interesting twists and turns towards the end of the book revealing a distinctly unpleasant side of Edinburgh life. The author slips in some neat deflections and one or two surprises. However, the skip ahead in time at the end of the book and the late introduction of a new character made the conclusion feel a bit rushed.

A glimpse of old Edinburgh and the beginnings of the National Health Service. I really enjoyed the historical element woven into an engaging mystery.

An interesting story buried under language and a style that gave me a headache. Having Scots speaking both English and
"local" is fine as long as it is consistent but, as a reader, I did not find it so.

The historical aspects were fine and dandy but the gossips failing to drops hints as to the darker, fictional side finished it for me. Problematic too was the knowledge that seemed to pop up that was inconsistent with the background of the person concerned.

I did complete the book, ever hopeful of some proper clarity but sadly it never came.

I love Catriona McPherson's historical mystery and this new series is full of promises and starts with a bang.
A gripping and welll written story featuring a strong and interesting heroine, Helen, set in Edinburgh just after WWII.
It's gripping and compelling, the mystery is solid and kept me guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This book was a mix bag for me. There were certain things about it that i liked, for example the storytelling was good and the main character was interesting. But the plot felt overtly long and complicated, with the story running in too many directions. There were too many strands in the story and i felt that they could have been perhaps lessened to give the book a more wholesome finish. I enjoyed the historical background though, which was very well done. 3.5 stars from me. And i will definitely read another book in the series/by the author.

In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson, offers a comprehensive look at many subjects that the author has deftly tied together. The book is really a historical mystery centered on Helen, a young woman who is a new medical welfare almoner. She is one of the first trained "triage" workers in the fledgling NHS, started in 1948, and is wholeheartedly dedicated to her new position. Helen works for two doctors, and her abilities and desire to help people with both physical and mental challenges are admirable. She is thrilled to be able to diagnose problems and drawn into delving into what's behind a murder as well. Helen has been living with her family and with her husband in a tenement, and when the two doctors offer Helen and Sandy a lovely flat with indoor plumbing, Helen is thrilled until she discovers a body in the underground shed.

Helen is a likeable, adamantine character who challenges herself to use her skills to make people's lives better. As a reader, I found the unpredictable plot and characters most interesting. Why doesn't Sandy want to consummate their marriage? What happened to him in the POW camp in Russia during WWII? Who is the dead girl in the shed and why is she there? Are the two seemingly friendly and skilled doctors giving and helpful practitioners? Or--is there a dark side to one of them? Why can't Helen's family understand her abilities and goals?

I have not read anything by McPherson before, but I certainly will look for her other books.

Disappointing. I enjoyed the parts about the patients reactions to the new NHS in 1948 Edinburgh. The mystery of the dead body was unbelievable and very confused. McPherson probably realised this, hence the fairly long epilogue explaining the story. The plot sounded great but didn't come together for me. Strangely, I think it might make a good miniseries.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

Helen Crowther is excited and proud to be working as a medical almoner at the start of the National Health Service - she is newly married and this job will let her help others who need it at the same time it allows her and her husband to get out of her parent's house and into one of their own. But when she finds a dead body in the garden of her new home, it sets off a series of events that make Helen start to question what she really knows about her employers and the people around her. In her quest to find out what really happened to the woman in her garden, Helen will uncover secrets and scandals that threaten to expose powerful men in Edinburgh's society and government.

McPherson provides readers with a fascinating glimpse into post-war Edinburgh and the beginnings of the NHS that highlight the lives of poorer members of society in ways reminiscent of Call the Midwife. This book is an education into what it was like to be living in tenements and colony houses in the 1940s and the challenges faced by women in particular. The dialect used by Helen and many of the characters was sometimes difficult to understand (and Google wasn't always helpful in providing enlightenment about what certain words meant), but it added a depth to the characters, especially when they would code-switch when dealing with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Elements of the central mystery were fairly easy to work out, though the details connecting all the different threads were woven together quite nicely and there was a lot of enjoyment to be had with watching Helen try to figure out what was going on, even if the reader got there first. I look forward to reading more from McPherson!

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read In Place of Fear early in exchange for an honest review!

The first few chapters of this book made me think that I missed an earlier story with Helen Crowther. There is some really important background information from an earlier stage of her life, but most of all, Helen is a fully developed character. Reading about her felt as if she's been there all along.
Helen's life is not easy, taking into account that by 1948 the war was still playing a big role in people's lives - a lot of very poor widows and young children living in horrible circumstances since there simply was not enough decent work. Men who survived the war to come back to a country that needed to be build up again, but at the same time there was lack of everything. And don't forget, in those days people had to share everything, from their - outside - toilets to a place to do the washing.
Helen and her husband Sandy are still living with her parents; mother Greet who works in a bottle factory and is very keen on 'doing the right thing', father Mack who's toiling in another factory, and sister Teenie who just wants to do what teenagers can finally do again: have a good time.
Sandy took on work as a street cleaner; Greet frowns upon this because she thinks he could do better, but after being in a POW camp for over three years, Sandy doesn't want to be confined all day. He needs to be out, in the open.
Helen on the other hand longs for her own office; she's trained by a Mrs Sinclair and now she's starting, finally, her own life as an almoner. She's over the moon when one of her employers shows her a real house, with more than just one room and above all, a small bathroom. No more going out in the rain, no more having to make haste because there are other people waiting. She even gets a lot of furniture and other things, because her employer doesn't need it anymore.
Helen is very happy with all this and would be even happier is she wasn't so anxious about Sandy, and so harrassed by the demands of her new job. She's having a hard time explaining to people that the new NHS is really absolutely free for everybody, whether they need a wheelchair, an operation or just some plain advice on cleanliness and health. The latter being very important, she discovers as she makes house calls.
When she finds a dead body and starts to try and find out who it is, and why it ended in her garden shed, it's almost too much but she is a very determined young lady. Determined to do the right thing, just as her mother.

It's a great story, a real pleasure to read, with good characters and lots of interesting historical notes. I would love to read more about Helen!

This mystery did not work for me, sadly, there were too many strands that pulled the story into different directions without ever meeting properly meeting together again. Elements were fascinating, but as a whole it simply did not work for me.

‘In Place of Fear’ by Catriona McPherson is set in Edinburgh in 1948, at the birth of the NHS. Helen begins a new job as Medical Almoner, which is a welfare role within the practice. Whatever the doctors can’t help with medically, will normally fall under her remit. Her family don’t seem happy that she’s even working, never mind with two male doctors. They are of the opinion 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, not a doctor’s office. 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 by poking her nose in, Helen is in grave danger.

I have read Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Silver series set in the 1920s and enjoyed them immensely. This is very different, in that the heroine is a working class woman, dealing with the harsh realities of life just after the Second World War. The historical aspects of the new NHS fascinated me. Its inception made life bearable for so many people and continues to this day, despite the efforts of some politicians.

The descriptions of Edinburgh in the 1940s felt so real and so desperate. The poverty was appalling still. The use of local language and dialect gave it a gritty reality, and I hope that those reading out-with Scotland will appreciate its richness.

The mystery is well told, as Helen delves into the seedy underbelly of Edinburgh, and finds out some secrets that others will kill to keep hidden. It was tense and compelling. There was also love and loyalty and a desire to make things better. I loved it.

I was given this ARC to review.

IN PLACE OF FEAR is a gripping new historical crime novel that is both enthralling and entertaining. This was a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish with a great storyline, interesting cast of characters and all capped off by skilful writing. It's well worth your time if you appreciate great storytellers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson. The setting is Edinburgh shortly after the end of World War 2. The author is excellent at describing the setting and locations - she paints a very clear picture of Edinburgh at that time. Good character building and development, particularly the practical, determined, striving main character of Helen. Interesting mystery with a few twists and turns, perhaps a bit obvious to a modern reader. I had to google the meaning of some of the Scottish expressions and words. Definitely recommend, and I look forward to the next installment in the series.

Historical fiction featuring the early days of the National Health Service in Scotland. This book takes place in 1948 and features a newly minted Medical Almoner who functions much as a medical social worker might today. Helen Crowther makes house calls, tries to convince people to sign up for the service, and is assigned to work for two doctors in the new Health Services program. All the while she is dealing with her own personal issues of having left her parent’s home to live in a house the doctor’s offered, triggering resentment and criticism that she is putting on “airs”. She is also coping with her new husband, who was a Prisoner of War and is now home; but shows no interest in consummating the marriage. Add to all this personal angst the body of a young girl she discovers in the shed behind their new home, and life is complicated for Helen.

If you are interested in an in-depth look, although fictionalized, in how the National Health Service functioned in its infancy, this is a good place to start. The book follows Helen along on her rounds as she contacts possible new patients and deals with issues ranging from unsanitary housekeeping and childcare, to a barren couple who might consider adopting a child. These activities take place as she settles in working with two doctors, learning how to manage their personalities and finding her place in the office.

While dealing with these issues in her professional life, she also must manage her relationship with her family and their criticism of her chosen profession as well as her husband’s decision to sweep streets rather than take a higher paying job. Overlaying all of this is the fact Helen is not yet pregnant, which her parents consider her primary duty.

As Helen battles through the resistance of family and others to pursue her goal, she finds ways to encourage herself toward her goals. She begins making plans for the small patch of green behind her new little house and goes to inspect the shed in the back. It comes as quite a surprise when she finds a dead body, a young woman, in the shed. She hurries to report to the police and she notifies one of the doctors for whom she works and he offers to pronounce. Relieved, she and the doctor follow the ambulance to the morgue where things get very confusing. The dead girl, at first thought to be a girl known to Helen, is identified as someone else. Then, the body is reported to have been sent to another city, which later Helen learns is not true.

Helen becomes determined to find the body and ensure a proper notification, As she begins her search, she uncovers an entire web of salacious activities that have been pursued by some of the more respected men of the community. She determines that one of the doctors for whom she works is also involved in this, and takes on the responsibility of making sure the girl is properly identified and the activities of the entire group of men are shut down.

The mystery focuses on who is involved in the secret activities which have led to death and other negative results for some of the young women and girls in town. While this mystery is an integral part of the book, it is not the main focus of the book and readers who are interested in the other aspects such as Helen’s life, the NHS, ect. will enjoy the book more than those looking for a traditional mystery. One caution, the dialogue is all written in Scottish dialect which may make it a slow read for some. I personally found this aspect to slow my reading and make it difficult to get started in the book at first.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Publishers for an advance copy of this book to review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.