The Maiden

Kate Foster

From Shelf: The 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

Based on the real life trial and execution of Lady Nimmo in seventeenth century Edinburgh, this is a gripping, feminist debut historical novel for fans of Stacey Halls and Sara Collins.

'Exceptional - a tense, thrilling investigation, with a decidedly feminist slant' - Daily MailLonglisted for the Women's Prize for FictionWinner of the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Inspired by a real-life murder trial, The Maiden is a remarkable feminist revisionist novel that places the forgotten women of history firmly centre stage.In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me.Edinburgh, 1679. Lady Christian is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess. Only a year before, Lady Christian was newly married, leading a life of privilege and respectability. So, what led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? She wasn't the only woman in Forrester's life, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead . . .'A masterpiece' - Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal'Riveting . . . the tension persists until the last page' - The Times*The Maiden was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction on 05/03/2024