Gillian Galbraith was born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, in January 1957. She was educated at a convent and at the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee.Following careers in dish-washing, bookselling and journalism she was called to the Scottish Bar in 1987.Her first novel BLOOD IN THE WATER, introducting Edinburgh detective Alice Rice, was published in 2007 and in that same year, optimism to the fore, she abandoned her legal practice in order to concentrate on her writing.Her second novel, WHERE THE SHADOW FALLS, also featuring DI Alice Rice, will be published by Birlinn in Spring 2008.Gillian lives happily in Kinross-shire with her husband Robert, daughter Daisy, and assorted other creatures.