A woman walks out of a Borders' mist with an old satchel over her shoulder. Shadowed by the factor of the estate, she enters a cottage that has been locked and empty for more than twenty years since the violent deaths of its last tenants. The woman is carrying a set of antique plates that tell the story of adultery, betrayal and murder implicit in the most famous of the 16th century Border Ballads, 'The Twa Corbies'. Obsessed by these plates, she believes they can tell her the truth about what happened here in the past and what it is she has to do now. Who is she? Perhaps she doesn't know the truth about herself as she changes forever the lives of the son and heir of the estate, his fiancee, and the landowner Sir Sim Elliot, who is reliving a long-dead passion. This novel marries the atmosphere of the Border Ballads - stark, poetic, violent - with a contemporary thriller, told through the erotic and highly charged Corbie Plates. Written in prose of great power and beauty, When They Lay Bare is a haunting tale of love, mystery and revenge.
