Review

The Mourning Necklace is a dark and gripping historical fiction tale from Kate Foster, author of The King’s Witches. The story follows Maggie Dickson, a young woman convicted of murdering her newborn baby. Sentenced to hang for her crime, Maggie is taken to the gallows, but survives her hanging. Maggie awakens with a string of bruises around her neck and is faced with two impossible questions: how did she survive, and will they hang her twice?

This is my second book from Kate Foster, and I enjoyed this one just as much as The King’s Witches. Foster has such a compelling writing style, and this was such a compulsively readable story that I could not put it down. Foster has a way of really bringing the sights and sounds of Edinburgh in the 1700s to life. I was hooked on this story from start to finish, even more so after I found out that the story was based on a real-life case. This made the story even more fascinating, and combined with the twists and turns that I didn’t expect, this is a book that has definitely stuck with me long after reading.

Maggie is a really interesting protagonist; she’s determined to reach her goal of living in London, despite the many hardships that get thrown at her. I thought The Mourning Necklace was an exquisitely crafted story, and I Kate Foster has definitely become an auto-buy author for me. If you’re looking for feminist historical fiction that you won’t be able to put down, this book is an absolute must-read.