INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH LILY MONTGOMERY BY INSPECTOR LANDRY OF THE EDINBURGH POLICE AFTER A TERRIFYING MURDER

Inspector Landry: There was an incident here that I must question ye about. I understand that ye are newly arrived in Edinburgh. Can ye tell me the reason ye are here?

Lily: I lived in Edinburgh previously, first at a foundling hospital and then at a private home, before living in London for several years. As far as I know, I was born here.

Inspector Landry: It is said that ye worked in a brothel in the Old Town. Tell me about that.

Lily: A friend found me on the streets and took me there. I was not but four or five years old.  I worked there, as a maid to the ladies. An encounter with Lady Mikaela Forsythe during a private inquiry case led her to make me her ward and take me to London for an education.

Inspector Landry: And the reason ye returned now?

Lily: To find my real family, and to learn the reason that I was abandoned as a child.

Inspector Landry: A woman was murdered several days ago. Ye knew her?

Lily: She was a friend from that private home who as helping me search for my family.

Inspector Landry: Ye must tell me what happened when ye arrived in Edinburgh.

Lily: I found that my friend had been murdered.

Inspector Landry: Did ye tell the constable everything when they found ye and took ye to the station?

Lily: I know how it looked when they found me there but I had nothing to do with her death.  She was my friend. I would never have harmed her. But I wanted very much to find who killed her.

Inspector Landry: How did ye go about that?

Lily: I know how it’s done. I learned from my guardian, Lady Forsythe, and Mr. Brodie with the inquiries they made in London from their office on the Strand.

So I began by speaking with the tavern owner my friend worked for, and the landlady at the Close where she lived. And there was a boy who saw someone the night she was killed.

Inspector Landry: That could have been dangerous. I’m told ye had an encounter with the killer?

Lily: Yes, at the marketplace where I found a clue. He attacked Kip, the boy who gave me the information. He escaped.

Inspector Landry: Were ye hurt in the encounter?

Lily: Only a few bruises.

Inspector Landry: A woman at the market claims she saw ye strike out at the man. Can ye describe him?

Lily: He’s a small man, but incredibly strong, and he wears a fine coat with a special trim. That is how we discovered who he was.

Inspector Landry: Elias was the man’s name, an assassin paid to murder people. A dangerous man. What can ye tell me about that part of it?

Lily: He found out where I lived on Allen Street, sent by the person who hired him, and threatened the people there.  I could let him hurt them.

Inspector Landry: There are those in the building who spoke of a terrifying encounter on the roof of the tenement. What happened up there?

Lily: He took Kip to the roof and threatened to kill him. I saw so much of myself in Kip, who survived on the streets. I could let Mr. Elias hurt him.

Inspector Landry: That was verra dangerous. What did ye do?”

Lily: I went after them. I had to stop him from hurting Kip. I found them up on the roof. Mr. Elias threatened to kill Kip.

Inspector Landry: I need yer statement for my report. Ye are a slender thing. How did ye stop him?

Lily: I don’t know…

Inspector Landry: How is it that ye dinna know?

Lily: It was terrifying. All I know is that I couldn’t let him hurt Kip… but he was so far away at the edge of the roof. He must have fallen.

Inspector Landry: Those who were there have said that he was badly burned, his clothes hardly more than singed threads, his features melted from the bones at his face. Was there an explosion? A chimney fire perhaps?

Lily: I already told you, I don’t know how it happened.

Inspector Landry: Ye were found on the roof afterward by a friend. Ye were not harmed. How do you explain that?

Lily (calmly, yet insistent): He must have slipped and fallen. I don’t remember anything else.

Inspector Landry: A verra frightening experience. Will ye be returning to London now?

Lily: No, the reason I came here hasn’t changed. The person who tried to kill me is still out there.

Inspector Landry: What will ye do if ye are able to find him?”

(It should be noted in the official police report that Miss Montgomery refused to answer the last question)

Want to know more about Murder in Fleshmarket Close?

A Victorian mystery set in Edinburgh’s darkest corners, where a woman with a hidden gift returns to the streets that raised her—and finds murder waiting.

She escaped once. Now she’s come back to uncover the truth. But the past isn’t finished with her yet.

Old Town Edinburgh is a place Lily Montgomery knows too well. She survived the Foundling Hospital where she was abandoned as an infant, then the brothel they called ‘The Church,’ where women sold themselves to survive. She escaped those streets. She built a new life in London.

Now she’s returned to learn the truth about her real family—only to find her oldest friend brutally murdered.

Lily has seen death before. On Edinburgh’s streets as a child. In the inquiry cases she assisted with in London. But this death she cannot walk away from. Her friend protected her when no one else would. She owes her justice.

James Munro has followed Lily to Edinburgh, determined to escort her back to London. What he finds is not the stubborn girl he knew, but a formidable woman with a mind of her own—and no intention of leaving until the killer is found.

As shadows from Lily’s past close in and a gift she barely understands begins to surface, she and Munro must find a way to work together before the murderer silences the one person determined to expose the crime—and buries Lily’s secrets forever.

Dark, atmospheric, and gripping—Murder in Fleshmarket Close is a Victorian mystery for readers who love fierce heroines, reluctant partnerships, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Perfect for readers who love:

– Heroines who survived the streets and fight for justice

– Victorian Edinburgh’s dark and gritty underworld

– Reluctant partnerships with simmering tension

– Mysteries laced with emerging supernatural gifts

Preorder your copy here: https://books2read.com/u/3LWg87

 

Meet Carla Simpson:

Once upon a time… I was told by someone very wise that I had lived many lives, and the stories I write are from those lives. Many more books to write…

“I want to write a book… ” she said.

“Then do it,” he said.

And she did, and received two offers for that first book proposal.

A dozen historical romances later, and a prophecy from a gifted psychic and the Legacy Series was created, expanding to seven additional titles.

Along the way, two film options, and numerous book awards.

But wait, there’s more a voice whispered, after a trip to Scotland and a visit to the standing stones in the far north, and as old as Stonehenge, sign posts the voice told her, and the Clan Fraser books that have followed that told the beginnings of the clan and the family she was part of…

And now…  murder and mystery set against the backdrop of Victorian London in the new Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe series, with an assortment of conspirators and murderers in the brave new world after the Industrial Revolution where terrorists threaten and the world spins closer to war.

When she is not exploring the Darkness of the fantasy world, or pursuing ancestors in ancient Scotland, she lives in the mountains near Yosemite National Park with bears and mountain lions, and plots murder and revenge.

And did I mention fierce, beautiful women and dangerous, handsome men?

They’re there, waiting…

 

You can find Carla on her website,  Facebook and Bookbub. If you’d like to keep up to date with her and hear all about her new releases, sign up for her newsletter.