Sarah Gilchrist is trying to make a new life as one of the first female medical students at Edinburgh University. But her reputation has not been helped by her involvement in a recent scandal.


Now her fiance, a man she has no intention of marrying, has been accused of a murder she is sure he didn't commit and she finds herself becoming his ally. Beneath the genteel façade of upper-class Edinburgh lurks blackmail, adultery, poison and madness and Sarah must return to the slums and back alleys as she discovers the dark past about a family where no-one is what they seem, even her own fiancé.


'A nicely constructed historical mystery about the unorthodox sleuthing of a young woman studying to be a doctor at the University of Edinburgh' New York Times


'The mystery is secondary to Welsh's depiction of the plight of intelligent, ambitious women in 19th-century Britain, long before anyone dreamed of #MeToo, when a spotless reputation and a suitable marriage was the end all and be all for a woman, her own wishes and desires be damned. Sarah's plight is an infuriating one indeed, and readers will cheer her every step of the way' Publishers Weekly