Candlemas

A candlemaker’s life is extinguished in this short story of murder and intrigue featuring the sixteenth-century Scottish lawyer Hew Cullan.

On Candlemas eve, an apprentice candle maker finds his master, John Blair, dead in his workshop, and the evidence points to the surgeon Sam Sturrock. Lawyer Hew Cullan finds himself, together with his friend, the physician Giles Locke, drawn into the investigation when they are enlisted by Sturrock’s desperate apprentice. At first it seems like Blair’s death is the result of reckless surgical practice, but as Hew delves deeper into the life of the candle maker he discovers a web of extortion. It seems John Blair was a man with many enemies . . .

“McKay is to be congratulated for the continued quality and inventiveness of her tales.” —The National