Synopsis

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian Nimmo 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, Christian was 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…

Review

This was such a beautifully written piece of historical fiction.

Inspired by a true story, The Maiden asks us to consider the results of our actions and question how we would react in a certain situation. Although there are not witches involved in this book, the trial we are witnessing feels similar to one for witchcraft. Lady Christian is treated differently, merely because she is a woman.

It’s a fantastic story, with some strong willed female characters who speak their mind, fight back and embrace their sexual desires. In a time where women were supposed to be meek and subservient, Violet and Lady Christian feel empowered and confident, yet entirely believable as characters.

The descriptions of the house and grounds are stunning, contrasting well with the prison and talk of the dreaded maiden (which I now have to visit next time I’m in Edinburgh).

Foster doesn’t perhaps provide a balanced account of the murder, but we are left in no moral doubt as to how we believe justice should be served. Their are parallels between modern trials in a time of social media, with the local people judging her based on how she is presented to the world: an adulteress whore is clearly capable of murder.

Gripping, lyrical and thought-provoking, I look forward to seeing what Foster writes next.

Thanks to Mantle Books and BookBreak for my proof copy. Opinions my own.