The Mourning Necklace By Kate Foster

Published: 05/02/2026

Genres: Historical Fiction - Historical Fiction - Scotland - Mystery - Crime

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 will they hang her twice?

Publisher information

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781035052073
Number of pages: 304
Dimensions: 199 x 134 x 19 mm
Weight: 216 g
Language: English