The Lady in the Loch (New Version)
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
When a woman’s bones are found in the icy dregs of the noxious Nor’ Loch, newly appointed sheriff of Edinburgh, Walter Scott, is called upon. Are these the remains of a drowned witch or religious heretic, or are they perhaps linked to something more recent and sinister? For although Edinburgh is known to be the center of literature, science, and medicine, it is also the haunt of body snatchers who prey upon the living and the dead alike, selling their victims for study by the student physicians at the medical school.
When a band of Travelling People is forced to winter near the city, two young women are taken, one from her bed while she sleeps near her family. Justice from the settled people is rarely accorded to gypsies and the Travellers fear they will be murdered one by one by the ghouls stalking their people.
A young gypsy named Midge Margret is sure that Scott will care. He befriended her family before and once more he promises to help find the murderer who prowls the snowy forest in a black coach. When a patchwork woman with supernatural strength begins hunting the streets as well, Scott and Midge Margret know the crimes are rooted in bloody dark magic. In order to catch the killer, the butchered victims themselves must testify.
By Nebula Award winning author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.
Publisher's Weekly says, "Skillfully cross-stitching history, mystery and old-time urban legend . . . tension mounts steadily . . . an artful work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Skillfully cross-stitching history, mystery and old-time urban legend, Scarborough (author of the Nebula-winning The Healer's War) weaves a tale set in 1880s Edinburgh. An armless skeleton that is discovered in the city's partly drained Nor Loch spurs this novel of infatuation, death and magic. Gypsy girls are disappearing into dark carriages and the noddies--bodysnatchers--are thought responsible, for fresh corpses are fetching a pretty penny from medical schools. The story follows three basic plot lines. One features Midge Margret, a gifted palm reader, who searches for the snatched girls and seeks the help of (the) Sir Walter Scott, the city's new sheriff. The second features Scott, as he mingles with the society of Edinburgh and ruminates on writing. He doesn't know how close he is to solving the case of the missing girls until the solution literally jumps out and grabs him. "Physician's notes" sprinkled throughout the text make up the third plot line, which offers a disturbing portrait of the villain behind the crimes. Much of the dialogue is told in broad Scots dialect that, though difficult to navigate, suits perfectly a world where corpses accuse their murderers, wounds bleed anew if touched by those who caused them and "corpse lights" lead the way to lost bodies. Tension mounts steadily, while the resolution is both satisfying and in keeping with the roles that magic and meaningful coincidence play in this artful work.
