“That I’ve done virtually nothing else but read this book all day has to be testimony to its gripping power.” Sandra

“Excels in sense of place, realism, plotting and caustic humour. Bleak, black and brilliant.” The Guardian

Meet your next favourite Scottish detectives: DI Colin Anderson and DS Winifred ‘Freddie’ Costello.

Which is worse — the devil you know, or the DEVIL you don’t . . . ?

Glasgow, 2010, 11:30 pm

DI Colin Anderson is called out to help someone who’s got into trouble in the river. In fact, it’s a ten-year old girl. She’s been chained to a ladder on the riverbank.

The tide comes in. She dies in Anderson’s arms.

As if his week couldn’t get any worse, a gangster is burnt alive and a teenage boy is tortured then dropped off a bridge.

It looks like these strange crimes are linked to an elusive criminal mastermind known as ‘The Puppeteer’.

But what’s the link between DS Costello’s top-secret assignment in a posh private school near Loch Lomond and Anderson’s investigations into the local gang’s war with the Russian mafia?

AN ELECTRIFYING SCOTTISH THRILLER WITH A HEART-STOPPING FINALE

Fans of Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Matt Brolly, Carol Wyer, Joy Ellis, Stuart MacBride, Angela Marsons, Helen H. Durrant, JD Kirk, DS Butler and LJ Ross will love this series.