When respected Gentleman and City Councillor, Deacon William Brodie, chases his love of gambling, he is drawn deep into a double life. Before long the open respectability of day gives way to a hidden life of crime at night, and soon, Brodie is on a trajectory to disaster . . . one which leads him to the gibbet.
Set in the Edinburgh of 1788, Deacon Brodie: A Double Life is a fact-based novel which tells how Brodie's love for gambling and risk sweeps him into a life of crime. Betrayed by an accomplice, and revealed as a "Gentleman by day, thief by night", Brodie escapes the city, is captured in Holland, then faced with a trial before a city where once he was a leading citizen. When he is sentenced to be hanged, his closest friend has a different idea and, in full view of everyone, Brodie takes his riskiest gamble yet.