A Musselburgh singer is celebrating the publication of her second novel.

Lorraine McBrearty, 51, writing under the pen name Emelle Adams, first put pen to paper to publish The Bucket List, a tense psychological thriller, as a “lockdown pastime”.

It tells the story of a woman, Angela, who is terminally ill and decides to use her time travelling around Scotland killing those who have wronged her.

She has now completed a sequel, The Revenge Pawn.

She said: “It is a follow-up of sorts to my first novel in that some characters return and the same block of flats feature.

“It’s also a revenge thriller novel but this time with historical elements using Whitecraig and Musselburgh as inspiration for the setting.

“Some place names like Carberry, Smeaton, [Queen] Mary’s Mount, the Ormiston yew and Prestonpans are mentioned. The racecourse and the lagoons feature. Other locations are changed to suit the story – a nursing home, hotel, couple of pubs, cafe and several streets – but it could be worked out where they are by locals.”

Lorraine, a dentist by profession, brought joy to scores of people with her weekly repertoire during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Armed with a portable PA system, she sang outside her Bridge Street flat every Thursday after Clap for Carers, delighting neighbours, passers-by and those who tuned into her online videos on social media.

The Bucket List started from conversations at work about her impending 50th birthday and making a bucket list of things to do.

Lorraine said: “Then it progressed to imagining a lady who had limited time to live so she made a bucket list of murder – a scorned woman with a vengeful plan. I already had a framework for a second book based on an idea I had while walking around Musselburgh and beyond – also another lockdown pursuit.

“It grew from there to cover female to male domestic violence and wondering what went on behind closed doors – and, of course, ways of murderous revenge.

“I then pieced together a link with the first book as the second protagonist moving into the same block of flats as the first lady and many of the characters return.

“There are many historical elements to this story in the form of rediscovered letters and journals, so I had great fun doing research into each era which was flashed back to in those documents.”

Lorraine, who lives with her 17-year-old son Adam, works as a dentist at Duncan Smith Dental. She sings in a band Back ‘n’ Blue, a duo called Jet and also performs care home gigs.

“I enjoy writing and find I start and end up in darkness as time passes so quickly when I’m doing it,” she said.

In The Revenge Pawn, following a failed marriage, Rhiannon returns to the town she grew up in and immediately falls foul of childhood ‘queen bee’ Kimberly.

Beautiful, successful and married, Kim has everything, including dark secrets, but she is still a bully who uses people like pawns. In the game they’re playing, Rhiannon has nothing left to lose... until she finds a series of family letters and realises revenge is in the blood and a true queen can move in any direction at all.

Lorraine said: “Most of the historical letters relate to ‘the village’, which is Whitecraig. I had a lot of help from locals on Facebook with details and stories from the past.”

Her new book is out on Amazon; however, she will also be selling paperbacks directly at £6.