''Jean Brash is my favourite character and David Ashton''s writing is as delicious, elegant and compelling as she is'' Siobhan Redmond (Jean Brash in BBC Radio 4''s McLevy series)Jean Brash, who first appeared in BBC Radio 4''s Inspector McLevy mysteries, is a formidable woman in her prime. Once a child of the streets, she is now Mistress of the Just Land, the best bawdy-hoose in Edinburgh and her pride and joy. But a murder in her establishment could wreck everything.New Year''s Day - and through the misty streets of Victorian Edinburgh an elegant, female figure walks the cobblestones - with a certain vengeful purpose. Jean Brash, the Mistress of the Just Land, brings her cool intelligence to solving a murder, a murder that took place in her own bawdy-hoose. A prominent judge, strangled and left dangling, could bring her whole life to ruin and she didn''t haul herself off the streets, up through lo
Trade ReviewHere is Jean Brash centre stage in all her splendour -
clever, cheeky, generous, alluring, hard-headed, yet prone to the occasional burst of crazy romanticism, an old friend who is full of surprises. I find her as irresistible as McLevy does:
she's my favourite character and David Ashton's writing is as delicious, elegant and compelling as she is. * Siobhan Redmond (Jean Brash in BBC Radio 4’s McLevy series) *
Ashton is an old hand at milking the Old Town, New Town and Leith for their
maximum atmosphere, suspense and air of criminality. That, combined with the intriguing premise of a crime-solving brotel-keeper, makes
Mistress of the Just Land a most diverting page turner * Herald *
PRAISE FOR THE INSPECTOR McLEVY SERIES
Mclevy is a sort of Victorian Morse with a heart, prowling the mean wynds and tenements of the endlessly fascinating city. David Ashton impeccably evokes Edinburgh so vividly that you feel the cold in your bones and the menace of the Old Town's steep cobbles and dark corners
* Financial Times *
An intriguing Victorian story...
elegant and convincing * The Times *
McLevy is one of the greatest psychological creations and
Ashton the direct heir to Robert Louis Stevenson * Brian Cox, CBE - Award-winning actor *
David Ashton's writing is excellent, his characters thoroughly convincing and
his narrative grabs you * The Sherlock Holmes Society *
Ashton's McLevy is a man obsessed with meting out justice and with demons of his own * Scotsman *
A real page-turner * Sunday Post *
