This isn’t to say that the novel isn’t enjoyable. It is. Even the hocus-pocus is good fun, and Oswald develops his narrative pleasingly and with a professional zest. Individual scenes are excellent, the evocation of a changing Edinburgh pleasing. The story carries you along at a good pace, but one also slow enough to let you cherish the details, even if a few moments of carelessness might have been avoided by more careful editing. (You can’t, for instance, take the ashes away immediately after a cremation service.)
