20 Books of Summer 2023: Blood in the Water by Gillian Galbraith

This is a book about murder; four murders in fact, each of them violent and blood-soaked.

But it is also a book about power, entitlement, and how the system protects its own and discards those it deems worthless. And it is a book particularly about Edinburgh, a city in which where you went to school can matter more than your DNA, and Old Money still calls most of the shots.

Alice was familiar with the cosy establishment club in which professionals respect each other and honour their arcane rituals, but view with suspicion those outside it...She too had been bamboozled by procedures and formalities, had strained to make sense of that arcane world and prevent its denizens from manipulating her within it. Gruff judicial admonishment had robbed her of the power of thought and of the ability to speak...

In Blood in the Water, the first of Gillian Galbraith's Alice Rice mysteries, a respected consultant in obstetrics has had her throat cut in the comfort of her own home. The culprit has left a note bearing a single word: 'Unreliable.' 

DS Alice Rice is part of the team assembled to find out who killed Elizabeth Clarke and why, but before the police have made much progress, another murder has taken place - not, this time, in the smart West End, but in rather less salubrious Granton. Sammy McBryde, jobbing gardener and general chancer; despite the huge social gulf between them, McBryde has suffered the same fate as Clarke - his throat has been cut from ear to ear. This time the note says 'Worthless.'

And it's not long before David Pearson QC, successful lawyer and serial adulterer, has been dispatched in similar manner while crossing the Meadows to reach his opulent house in the Grange (note: 'Misleading.') What connects these people? And what has the fourth victim, Pearson's young apprentice (and lover) Flora Erskine done to deserve her end? 

Alice and her colleagues struggle to make sense of it all. Their DCI, Elaine Bell, is being pressurised for answers. Alice's nemesis, Eric Manson, is convinced Clarke's ex-boyfriend, is her killer; Alice is equally sure that he isn't. As Alice and her working partner Alastair start to dig deeper into all of the victims' pasts, a far more complex story emerges, one that highlights the iniquities in Edinburgh society and the ways in which the system will always be slanted towards those who know how to play it. 

Minor characters are also well drawn; the Jehovah's Witnesses (who may have seen the murderer), resigned to endless rebuffs; Miss Spinell, who looks after Alice's dog and believes she's being burgled every night; Elizabeth Clarke's widowed mother, who thought she would have a happy retirement in Haddington but is now alone in a hostile world. Parenting is a theme throughout the book, and again Galbraith addresses the inequities of birth; the lottery of who gets help and who doesn't, who is 'allowed' to keep a child and who isn't, and whether/when the state should intervene to protect a child, born or unborn. Class and income dictate a woman's' agency, or lack of it. Those that are deemed undeserving are simply left to fall through the cracks. 

Galbraith used to be an advocate specialising in medical negligence cases, and she puts her expertise to good use here, highlighting the issues from both sides - the tragedy of claimants who've suffered terribly but can't prove fault, but also the fraudulent insurance claims made by those after a handy pay-out. Standing between them and the judge are the lawyers;

The camaraderie she had witnessed between opposing Counsel had worried her, seemed sinister, though it had been explained that they were all hired guns, who would as easily, and as willingly, argue the opposite case, having no conviction, however passionate they might seem in court.

Some authors try too hard to locate their stories, overloading the narrative with too much information, but Galbraith follows in the hallowed footsteps of Ian Rankin in rooting Blood in the Water firmly in Edinburgh while doing so with the lightest of touches. So we catch glimpses of the High Street, the Faculty of Advocates, St Giles' Cathedral - but we are never beaten about the head with tourist board detail. The sterility of Elizabeth Clarke's home in the Dean is communicated in few words;

On the bare table by the bed were three books, a novel by Lermontov and two textbooks: Fetal Monitoring in Practice and Obstetrics by Ten Teachers...

Her elderly neighbour's flat is brought to life in a small masterpiece of description;

In among dilapidated pieces of furniture were five small wooden clothes horses , each laden with a selection of irregularly-shaped bits of towel, dishcloths, and strange yellowish undergarments. The only heat in the room came from an old-fashioned one bar electric heater. Steam was rising from the clothes horse closest to it....

This is a fast paced and gripping story, the writing is excellent and the final denouement is convincing, leaving no loose ends. But Blood in the Water is not just a murder mystery; Galbraith develops every character so well that I could imagine them as real people. Alice is efficient, dedicated and smart, but she still knows life in the police is harder for her as a woman. Elaine Bell is working herself into the ground to hold on, working all hours while suffering from flu (when the men catch it they're all off sick straight away...) Sammy is a selfish waster, but he dreams of moving to the country and keeping bees. Flora is a successful young lawyer, burdened with secret anguish about the death of her philandering boyfriend. 

Whilst Blood in the Water has a clear conclusion - we do find out who did it and why - the moral questions it raises are harder to answer, and elevate this excellent debut far above the standard murder mystery. 

Blood in the Water by Gillian Galbraith was originally published by Crescent Crime, an imprint of Mercat Press Ltd. Galbraith is now published by Polygon.