Coming June 2024 from Black & White
Cover reveal coming soon….
‘I couldn’t put it down. The writing oozes passion and guts, and the darkness of the world is interlaced with humour….ambition, power, greed, desire – all seen through the lens of women’s bodies and their voices.’
Devika Ponnambalam, author of I Am Not Your Eve
Isobel Duguid and her friend, the celebrated castrato Clessidro, enjoy an opulent lifestyle as the stars of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Clessidro sings opera and Isobel, despite the objections of the society’s committee, sings dark Scottish ballads, her most notorious being The Fiddler’s Wrath.
It’s a tale of a prima donna who died of heartbreak after her husband murdered her lover and was sent to the gallows. But this ballad is more than fiction, and when the truth about The Fiddler’s Wrath comes to light, Isobel must confront ghosts from her own past and face chilling retribution for a secret kept far too long . . .
Combining the macabre murder mystery of Patrick Suskind’s Perfume with the feminist slant of Kate Foster’s The Maiden, Murder Ballad explores a tale of friendship, betrayal and deadly secrets.
‘This glorious romp through the filth, greed and duplicity of 18th century Edinburgh is a feminist delight. Written with passion and musicality it is both hugely enjoyable and stuffed to the gunnels with the appetites of life. Highly recommended.’
Mary Paulson-Ellis
‘Gorgeous, gripping and grisly’
Lynsey May, author of Weak Teeth
‘Lucy Ribchester has the power to take her readers to the heart of 18th-century Auld Reekie where she regales them with tales of opera singers and murderers, of cobbled streets and Old Town tenements, of audacious women and what can befall them. The writing is sublime, I loved every word.’
Elissa Soave, author of Ginger and Me