Book description
1581: young St Andrews academic Hew Cullan is unhappy with his life
and disillusioned with the law. After his father's death he is invited
by the advocate Richard Cunningham to complete his legal education in
Edinburgh as Richard's pupil at the bar. Among his father's things Hew
finds a manuscript entitled In Defence of the Law', directed to the
Edinburgh printer, Christian Hall. At first, he resists its influence,
but when a young girl is found dead on the beach at St Andrews, he is
left unsettled and confused. He resolves to take the book to press and
agrees to Richard's offer. Embarking on his new life in the capital,
he falls in love. His relationships are fraught with lies and secrets
and lead to brutal murder on the borough muir. Hew suspects a link
with the dead girl on the beach. As he begins his desperate search to
find the killer, he finds that the truth lies closer to home.
Shirley McKay was born in Tynemouth but now lives with her family in
Fife. At the age of fifteen she won the Young Observer playwriting
competition, her play being performed at the Royal Court Theatre
Upstairs. She went on to study English and Linguistics at the University
of St Andrews before attending Durham University for postgraduate study
in Romantic and seventeenth century prose. She was shortlisted for the
CWA Debut Dagger. Shirley works as a freelance proofreader.
