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The Mourning Necklace

Author Kate Foster
Narrator Paula Masterton
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Run Time 9 hours and 35 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Historical fiction, Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Social issues.

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What to expect

'Kate Foster is an exceptional writer and masterful storyteller' – Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal

Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is an unforgettable historical novel from the Women's Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.

They said I would swing for the crime and I did. I wear the rope-bruise like a necklace.

1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged for the murder of her newborn child, passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.

But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.

It is Maggie. She is alive.

Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering this one: will they hang her twice?

Praise for Kate Foster:

'Exceptional – a tense, thrilling investigation, with a decidedly feminist slant' – Daily Mail on The Maiden

'Riveting . . . the tension persists until the last page’ – The Times on The Maiden

'Enthralling, compelling and at times chilling . . . An utterly timely tale' – D. V. Bishop, prize-winning author of Ritual of Fire, on The King's Witches

Critics Review

Kate Foster can pluck a dark story from the depths of history and bring it to vivid life before your eyes. The Mourning Necklace is her best yet. Inspired by the real-life tale of a woman who survived her own execution, it is moving and masterful, a visceral treat that transports you to 18th-century Scotland and says as much about modern life as it does about those harrowing times. Foster is a class act and an author who, if you haven’t read her yet, what are you waiting for? A strong contender for my book of the year

Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal

What a fabulous read. Maggie is an amazing character – so ordinary, yet profoundly extraordinary at the same time – her story compelled me from the very first page. Kate excels at bringing the forgotten women of history back to life and giving them the attention they deserve

Claire Evans, author of The Fourteenth Letter

Scratch beneath the surface of a Kate Foster novel and all of life is there in the most elegant prose. The Mourning Necklace is an exquisitely crafted imagining of Maggie Dickson’s life, death and life again – a captivating tale you must not miss

Marion Todd, author of the bestselling DI Clare Mackay series

The new Hilary Mantel. A tale of a working class lass punished for the crime of wanting more. Thank you for making me cry again Kate Foster! Another brilliant read with shocks and humour along the way

Tina Baker, author of What We Did In The Storm

The King's Witches is enthralling, compelling and at times chilling. Foster transports the reader back in time, bringing alive the forgotten and hidden voices of women in the past. An utterly timely tale that surpasses The Maiden, her rightly celebrated debut

D. V. Bishop, author of Ritual of Fire, on The King's Witches

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