Synopsis Festival of Death: An Edinburgh Murder Mystery The story unfurls in Edinburgh during the International Festival and ends at Christmas, focussing on the violent murders of two gay men, and the mysterious, apparently accidental, death of a controversy-courting theatre director, who is discovered in sordid circumstances with his unconscious partner. Debbie Keane is a young detective constable, unknowingly, closely connected to the gay community, who is assigned to the investigations. DC Keane’s boss and mentor, DI Billy Alexander, is a man whose cringeworthy political incorrectness is performance art worthy of a Fringe First Award. As she gets to know him, Debbie gains insight into his true nature, the essence of a man who represents all that is wrong with the city she loves. Debbie discovers startling secrets about some of the other people she thinks she knows best, and comes to realize how deeply prejudice cuts. The follow spot picks out the interconnected lives of three women in their late-twenties: the career policewoman, who lives with her partner, a handsome Italian-Scot, the gay woman, who lives with a succession of eccentric house-mates, who falls in love with the wrong woman; and the complex, neurotically beautiful woman, who falls in love with the wrong man. This all-girl ensemble is directed by pivotal men, who also orchestrate the dramatic score. The stories of these previously unconnected women unravel, with the trailing threads re-weaving them together. The tale forms a colourful tapestry that depicts vignettes of modern life in Auld Reekie