The Spendthrift and the Swallow

Edinburgh, 1853.
In a city where reputation is everything, it doesn't take much to destroy a man.

When Cora Carlton, socialite and wife of a free-spending entrepreneur, dies suddenly on New Year's Eve, the knives are out for her physician, the esteemed Dr James Young Simpson.

Determined to separate medical fact from malicious rumour, Simpson's protégé Dr Will Raven and aspiring medical practitioner Sarah Fisher traverse the heights of society and the depths of the underworld to uncover a grisly truth.

In this digital exclusive short story, wander through the dark alleys of Victorian Edinburgh with Raven and Fisher, and read on for a sneak preview of Ambrose Parry's new novel Voices of the Dead.