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In this case, it just didn't work for me. Those interested in noir-style mystery/policing adventures may be better off with Greywood Publishing's Crime Scene line or GURPS Mysteries, Cops, and SWAT.
The Edge of Midnight setting is an alternate history set around the 1950s. Magic exists, primarily as a way of cheating with physics. A quick 1 page summary of the setting would have been useful at the start.
My first concern was that there are no sources listed. I don't expect GURPS level bibliographies from most publishers, but I do like at least a Further Reading section. And a lack of sources always raises concerns about the authors' research in something based, in part, on the real world.
Chapter 1 starts with Police. It describes a typical urban police force, and notes a few differences between the fictional police and their modern counterparts, like the lack of SWAT teams or a 911 system. On the other hand, it says that police calls are radioed to a patrol officer in the field, not addressing whether officers have radios on their persons or only in their cars, or whether two person foot patrols and/or car patrols are the norm. Nor does it specifically mention that the Miranda warning does not exist in the 1950s setting. There is no discussion of rural policing, sheriffs, customs, wildlife rangers, etc., for reasons apparently inherent to the setting.
This section could have used a Text Box listing ten or a dozen examples of how the United Commonwealth Police differ from a modern force.
There is a section on forensics in this setting, but little discussion of how 1950s era forensics might be limited, and especially how it has been questioned in the modern era -- the limitations can prove useful to a GM trying to create a puzzle or a criminal character trying to cover his/her tracks. It implies a much more serious focus on crime scene work than is likely historical.
The section on interrogation likewise offers little flavor on how a 1950s interrogaiton differs from a modern one, or on even the understanding in the 1950s of the limitations of eyewitness testimony and/or false confession problems.
For the most part, the material is presented very matter-of-face, and does not provide much guidance about creating police adventures or characters. It could be improved with a discussion of typical police investigation and resposne if the PCs call them or their activies are reported and with police as adversaries.
There also seem to be some weird interactions with the setting. The text asserts that the FBI analog has 50 million fingerprints in its records -- which is true of the modern FBI, but would not be true in the 1950s, and makes even less sense when the setting assumes that no one has any history or records predating "The White Light" event 5 years earlier. Indeed, a discussion of the challenges of policing when criminal records for offenders don't go back more than 5 years, and likewise there is a huge body of items like gun serial numbers and car for which there is no body of records would have been an interesting topic and seed for adventures, but is completely unexplored.
Chapter Two invovles crime solving, and again is an odd mix of modern concepts, history, and the alternate setting. The comments on self-defense and legal use of force, a subject dear to most player-characters, is surprisingly brief and wrong (real world American self-defense law includes the risk of not just death, but serious bodily harm, and sexual assault) -- the serious bodily harm concept being important. It also misses the "fleeing felon" rule, which in the 1950s would allow an officer to shoot a known felon who was trying to escape. This chapter also introduces the FBI counterpart (there don't seem to be other federal agencies or military police) and talks in a text-box about international law enforcement (which seems to contradict some assumptions of the basic setting).
It might have made more sense to put the police organizations in one chapter, and the crime solving material in another, and perhaps integrate better the question of magic and crime solving, which would seem to be the heart of the setting.
Chapter 3 considers private detectives. It talks about PIs being hired to prove marital infidelity, but neglects to remind the reader that this is a time before "no fault" divorce and thus there was a need to prove a cause to break up a marriage. Given the memory and record loss inherent in the setting, one would think there would be a great deal for PIs to do in proving ownership of disputed property, paternity, debts, and so on. A section on bounty hunters (if bail exists), repo men, and other PI-like characters would also have been welcome.
Chapter 4 considers vigilantees, and at this point, the authors seem to warm more to the topic, discussing why and how a character might come to take the law into his or her hands, and the sometimes subtle difference between vigilantee, criminal, and serial killer.
Chapter 5 considers Warlocks and especially "Crystal Ball Squads" -- police magicians who hunt others who use magic -- and the government's own magicians (Dept. of Stragegy). Again, the authors seem more interested in their topic here and the emphasis shows in their writing.
Chapter 6 introduces an new magic system -- Voudoun. It is hard to evaluate on its own, but may be useful to those using EoM.
Capter 7 add a discussion of Warlock Organziations -- all illegal organizations in the setting and interesting allies or adversaries.
Finally, there is a short appendix with new rules.
In sum, the book is of limited use to anyone outside of the EoM setting. There are better RPG books out there for folks interested in dramatic cops-n-robbers and PIs.
