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Scotsman
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson review: 'entertaining but unconvincing'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Catriona McPherson's novel begins splendidly with a death in the public baths in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh in the years after the Second World War. The district then, as she says in an author's note, was a working-class district with a slaughterhouse, tannery, brewery, sweet factory and the Co-op dairy stables. The atmosphere is splendidly and, for older readers, nostalgically recalled. The novel opens with its young heroine Helen Crawther, a public health welfare officer, vigorously scrubbing an old woman's back. Then there is an alarm. A man is found dead in his bath. It's a horrible death; he seems to have been boiled. The local policeman thinks little of it. Helen knows better. What she also knows, besides the crime – for she is sure no one could commit suicide in that way – is that her father, a slaughterman, seems to have been in another of the bathrooms, but he makes off and later denies he was there. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That's the beginning and it's excellent, inviting and perplexing. Moreover, Helen (or Nelly) is a fine, well-drawn character, a determined young woman; an unusual one too, for while she is married to her childhood sweetheart, he lives in the ground floor of her house in the Colonies, with his lover, a man who was a prisoner-of-war in a German camp. The husband, Sandy, is not a major character in the novel, but the arrangement marks Helen as an unusual young woman, very unusual for that time. McPherson is a good enough writer to make this arrangement, barely thinkable in 1948, credible. Catriona McPherson Another, still more bizarre, death follows, a disgusting one indeed, but the police – rather a nuisance in this sort of novel – seem uninterested and, unlike Helen, see no connection between the two deaths. They are perhaps more concerned with the whereabouts of a man who has escaped from what was then known as a lunatic asylum. It is Helen, who, by approaching a friend (and admirer) who works in the city morgue and examines the corpse, learns of the disgusting and – one has to say – improbable cause of death. A third death follows, this time at the Murrayfield ice rink, equally improbable, equally grotesque. Can Helen and her friends – the husband and wife doctors with whom she works; Caroline, a rich girl who works as a gardener at the Botanics; and Billy from the morgue, solve the mystery which doesn't seem greatly to interest the police? And meanwhile, can she get her father to account for his lies? All this is interesting enough and well worked out. Yet it is disappointing because the early chapters promised something more interesting. The crime theme is imaginative and entertaining enough, but it is all playacting. The murders are so bizarre that it is hard to think even for a moment that anything of this matters. The best crime writers never forget and always make us realise and feel that murder is an offence; I think especially of Georges Simenon and William McIlvanney. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Here the murders, however grotesque, are insignificant and the bizarre development of the plot is unconvincing. It's a shame because there is so much that is admirable and enjoyable. The framing story is excellent, the evocation of a now almost completely vanished part of Edinburgh life, enthralling. This rings true, as indeed does Helen most of the time, but the murder plot is mere make-believe, tushery and therefore boring. It's a shame because so much is so good.
Telegraph
08-04-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The £6 brush that tackles cellulite
There are some beauty products that are completely worth splashing out on, but when it comes to cellulite creams, I am mostly unimpressed. (Although there is one I've been testing recently that has shown great promise – more on that later.) Most creams don't work because cellulite is partly the result of an underactive lymphatic system. This is a network of channels that drains waste from the body via lymph fluid and, as explained by Legology founder Kate Shapland, is primarily found in and around areas where you typically have more fat cells. If you're sitting at a desk most of the day, lymph circulation becomes sluggish and this waste can settle between fat cells, which can contribute to the resultant unevenness on the surface of the skin. Pleasingly, one of the most effective ways to get that sluggish lymph moving is available on the high street for just a few pounds in the form of a dry body brush. I have the Botanics version, which is £6.50 from Boots, and does the job well. Botanics dry brush, Boots, £6.50 To use a dry body brush effectively, work in short, sharp strokes from the feet, always in an upwards motion. You can focus on the thighs and the tummy area, which I do, working in firm strokes in a clockwise direction around the abdomen. It should only take a minute or two and is best used on dry skin before you bathe or shower (this has the added benefit of gently exfoliating the skin, too). Another method is using a body tapper, such as the Bamboo Body Tapper by Hayo'u (£45), which is inspired by Chinese medicine. It's a bunch of bamboo sticks held together by a handle, and you tap the bamboo up and down the limbs to encourage circulation. It's invigorating, too, and is a handy remedy for tired or sore muscles. Just tap it gently on the skin, focusing on the thighs if cellulite is your concern, or on any sore muscle points: you only need to do it for a couple of minutes a few times a week. Bamboo Body Tapper, Hayo'u, £45 To really see the benefits of dry body brushing, 'the key is in the frequency', says the physiotherapist and lymphatic drainage specialist Flavia Morellato. Try it four to five times a week and you'll notice a difference by the summer months. If you are able to book in for the occasional professional lymphatic drainage massage, all the better. In Morellato's native Brazil, a weekly lymphatic drainage massage is as popular as a manicure. While a regular deep tissue massage aims to get through the knots in achy shoulders and sore legs, 'lymphatic drainage massage is a lighter massage that focuses on moving and draining waste from the body', she explains. Morellato has opened up a new space in London but her team of physiotherapists can also do home visits – otherwise look at apps such as Secret Spa or Ruuby, which are great for finding local therapists. You'll see an instant benefit with this type of massage if you feel like you carry extra water weight or are generally feeling sluggish. Now on to that cream that seems to have potential. You're probably familiar with retinol and retinal in skin creams (retinal is a more potent form of vitamin A than retinol), and the active ingredient is now also being used more in body care. Murad's Retinal ReSculpt Body Treatment (£79) is packed with an encapsulated retinal, which makes it far less sensitising on the skin. I've tried a few products for cellulite over the years and this is the first that seems to make a difference. Retinal ReSculpt Body Treatment, Murad, £79 The before and after clinical trials by the brand are seriously impressive, not just on the firmness of the skin but also for minimising the look of stretch marks (since retinal works on rapidly increasing cell turnover). I've been testing it out for the past four weeks, focusing on my abdomen area – which is covered in stretch marks after three pregnancies – and my thighs. The skin texture and quality already looks better. I'll keep you posted. Three more skin saviours Sweet Almond Body Oil, £25, Kama Ayurveda Body massage, or abhyanga as it's referred to in Sanskrit, is a core principle of body care in Ayurveda. If you have the extra time before bed, I would pop this bottle in a bowl of very warm water for a few minutes, then massage your limbs with the warmed oil. Heavenly. Exfo-Lite Exfoliating Body Scrub, from £12, Legology If you are looking for body care done well, check out British brand Legology. This is one of its bestsellers. A smoothing, detoxing body scrub designed to be used on the legs, the Himalayan salt blend is brilliant to use once a week. It helps to improve the look of dry skin and contains lemon peel, which is immediately invigorating. Intensive Moisturising Lotion by CeraVe, £15, Boots If dry skin is your main concern, this new intensive moisturiser by American brand CeraVe is an excellent remedy. It's a rich formula of ceramides, hyaluronic acid and urea that powerfully tackles flaky, itchy skin. The best news of all? It doesn't feel remotely greasy or tacky.
