Isla was ready to die -- but the spirits had other ideas
It is 1833, and fiery Edinburgh widow Isla is dying. Ready to meet her maker and eager to reunite with the love of her life, she is not afraid of passing, but Isla’s death is only the beginning of a series of otherworldly adventures that she must undertake on her quest to find her husband. As a spirit, Isla must deal with grave-robbers, ancient mysteries and earth bound ghosts in order to protect her granddaughter and locate her love. Culminating in the glowing bonfires of a lawless and blistering Samain, when the bold dead walk among the living, Isla Rising ranges from the arcane to the humorous, as the wild widow stalks through the shadowy depths of Edinburgh’s homes and cemeteries, pubs and plots.
Map of Old Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Scotland 23 October 1833
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Isla’s narrative
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I am dying; I know it well enough. It does not matter that Dr. Walters comes up from Little France to tell me my heart is beating like a drum, that I will live for another year, mebbe two. Or that Charlotte is full of pretty lies of how well I look, and how much better I seem. I have the inside knowledge; I will go soon. I am ready enough to go, to surrender my soul and be done with all this. Lately I have longed for it. But there is still one thing that I must do before I move on to the darkness and the mystery.
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Slowly I readjust my blankets. The doctor has just left and
now I pray. I am old, very old, so old that I don’t really
know how old I am. On that score and what day it is, or
where I put my glass down I am very vague. My skin is
wrinkled and spotted and my grey hair is streaked with
white, although I pretend that it is not. I am quite sick of
being abed, but my body is useless. This old body; it can
find no way to lie that doesn’t pain me. Now it’s cold, now
it’s hot, it can’t keep its food down, it’s always tired. This
body used to be my servant but now it is my master. But
that is only my body; READ MORE
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