The Girl Can't Help It

2006, West Coast of Scotland. Nineteen year old Lucy is pregnant and alone in a strange seaside town when her boyfriend, Bobby, is arrested. Desperate, she takes a job in a rough pub in town. It’s here that Lucy meets Murdoch Black, an elderly alcoholic with a strange gait, a dark past and a penchant for rock and roll.

The old boys who drink at the Star warn her that he seems harmless, sure, but back in the ‘50s he murdered a pregnant teenager named Maria Taylor. The cops could never prove it, but “trust -the cunt done it.” Already haunted by the belief that she won’t be any good as a mother, Lucy starts seeing the dead girl around town- so she takes it upon herself to solve the 50 year old cold case before Maria’s ghost comes to take away her baby.

The Girl Can't Help It is my second novel.

Writing sample available upon request.