Edge of the Grave, Morrison - B+

                     This superb novel is the first of two featuring Jimmy Dreghorn, a detective on the Glasgow PD in the early 1930's. It provides a deep and insightful look into a city torn by religious rivalries, haunted by poverty, and struggling from the consequences of the Depression. Jimmy is asked to take over the case of a murdered bon vivant, brother-in-law to the man who was Jimmy's captain on the Western Front for the entirety of their four years in the trenches. The plot is quite complex involves high-level corruption in the Corporation, the name of the informal powers that be who run the city. There is gang violence, mostly along religious lines and in the pursuit of illegalities and ill gotten gains. The murderer and blackmailer turns out to be someone Jimmy knows very well.