Murder Ballad

Edinburgh, 1791. Isobel Duguid and her friend Clessidro are the stars of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Clessidro sings opera and Isobel sings famously dark Scottish ballads, despite being incapable of holding a tune. They roam the streets of Edinburgh, enjoying an opulent lifestyle.One night a note arrives from the mysterious Cecilia Abercorn, asking if Isobel's most notorious song, The Fiddler's Wrath, might be included in a book. It's the tale of a prima donna who died of heartbreak after her husband committed murder and was sent to the gallows. Isobel is intrigued. But Mrs. Abercorn's curiosity about the ballad is far more than a fickle interest. When Clessidro goes missing, Isobel is forced to confront her past and the truth about The Fiddler's Wrath begins to emerge.Using the geography of Edinburgh to guide us through the story, this dark tale becomes more complicated than anyone could have imagined and awakens the chilling retribution of a once buried secret.

Lucy Ribchester was born in Edinburgh. She has a first-class degree in English from the University of St Andrews and a Masters in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London & Shakespeare's Globe.In 2013 she received a New Writers Award from The Scottish Book Trust. She has since won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, and been shortlisted for the COSTA Short Story Award and Manchester Fiction Prize. Her first novel, The Hourglass Factory was longlisted for the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown, picked by Val McDermid for her New Blood panel at Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, and selected by Waterstones' Edinburgh branches as their Book of the Year.Lucy also covers dance, books and children's events for Scotland's The List magazine, and writes contemporary thrillers under the name Elle Connel.