I hadn't read anything by Catriona McPherson, and as a standalone, this sounded like a good introduction to her. Unfortunately, I was never able to get into this story. It's solidly researched historical fiction but never seemed to hit a groove with me. I'm not giving on McPherson, however, and will try one of her other books.

If you like historical mysteries, particularly those in the post-WW2 era, you should give this a try.

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for providing access to a digital ARC on NetGalley. ( )

https://girllostinabook.com/2022/11/11/review-in-place-of-fear-by-catriona-mcphe... ( )

For anyone who enjoys historical fiction or mysteries, Catriona McPherson's In Place of Fear is a delight of a read. (The introduction below is a bit lengthier than I sometimes provide, so I want explain that it focuses on the context of the novel. It doesn't contain spoilers. It doesn't sketch out the full plot of the novel.)

The novel is set in 1940s Edinburgh the day before Britain's new National Health Service (NHS) begins. Helen Crowther, the central character, is starting a job as a Medical Welfare Almoner, a position that's been created as part of the new NHS. Her job involves everything from running post-natal nutrition classes to seeing that items like wheelchairs and accessible housing are provided for those who need them to making home visits. Setting a novel during this particular historical moment strikes me as absolute genius: the author can explore post-war life during which rationing still exists and the shift from private to "socialized" medicine.

Helen's grown up in a working-class family that's just managing to hang on. The most obvious position for her is in the bottling factory where most of the women in her neighborhood work alongside her mother. But Helen was spotted young by Mrs. Simpson, one of those wealthy, do-gooding women committed to telling the lower classes how they should improve their lives—though "improvement" mean cleanliness or thrift, not help with significant upward economic movement.

No one, expect for Helen herself, is happy she's taken the NHS job. Her mother thinks that she's getting "beyond herself" and that the fact that she's working at a small clinic run by two male doctors will ruin not just her reputation, but the family's as well. Mrs. Simpson thinks she's ungrateful because she'll no longer be devoting her life to helping Mrs. Simpson continue to improve the poor and to share their plight with her wealthy peers.

Unexpectedly, Helen is offered use of an an apartment in a small home near her clinic that is owned by one of the doctors she works with. She and her husband move in gladly, having spent their marriage up to this point sharing a box bed in the main room of the apartment Helen's family lives in—not a great setting for a pair of newlyweds who could use some privacy. The home has an Anderson shelter (an improvised bomb shelter) in the back yard, and when Helen opens it, thinking she'll use it as a gardening shed, she finds a dead body inside—one that looks like a daughter of Mrs. Simpson.

That's the set up. From that point, the novel offers intertwining threads: Helen's determination to find out who the dead girl is and what's happened to her; her experiences taking on the demands of her new job; the continuing class conflicts that apparently drive Edinburgh at this time; and getting to know her husband again, a childhood sweetheart who's just spent six years in a German prison camp.

All this could easily become soppy or stentorian, but it doesn't. McPherson knows exactly how much information to give—and how to give it—so that readers can share Helen's journey. If you're looking for a good novel for yourself or to give as a gift, In Place of Fear should prove an excellent choice.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from NetGalley; the opinions are my own. ( )

How appropriate to write a novel about the opening of the NHS just as the pandemic was straining it at the seams. The protagonist is a newly-trained "almoner" or medical social worker who sets up her practice with two physicians in Edinburgh. The story takes us on many of her field visits as she brings together medical care with human kindness and understanding of working class lives. There is also a mystery - a young girl is found dead on the premises of the home Helen and her husband have been provided, and she is the spitting image of the daughters of a nosy philanthropist who had taken Helen under her wing (but represents a pre-NHS approach to public welfare). All of this is told in a rich Scots narrative which can slow the reader down a bit puzzling over the unfamiliar words and phrases, though there is a glossary in the back. I felt it both slowed me down at times but also added a rich dimension to the story.

There's something of an uneasy balance between the mystery and Helen's story (which, frankly, I found more interesting than the whodunnit) and the pacing is uneven as a result, with the mystery relatively underdeveloped or scattered. But the setting and subject matter and the exploration of what it takes to do social services well, with acceptance and understanding, was rewarding. Fans of Call the Midwife will be pleased.

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. ( )