Will DCI Andy Gilchrist end up like the others - dead, beheaded on a beach?

The middle of winter in St Andrews. When a young woman's half-naked body is found on Fife's Coastal Path, frozen and with remnants of a rope manacle around her wrist, DCI Andy Gilchrist is given the case.

Gilchrist's investigation uncovers a bloody trail of shootings and executions that lead him to the heart of a trafficking war. Links to Scotland's foremost criminal family, the Home Office and a killer intent on expanding his territory, pull Gilchrist deeper into this murderous web until he comes face to face with the most dangerous man he has ever met.

Praise for T. F. Muir:

''Everything I look for in a crime novel.'' Louise Welsh

''A truly gripping read, with all the makings of a classic series.'' Mick Herron

''A clever thriller, tinged with melancholy.'' Karen Campbell.

''Rebus did it for Edinburgh. Laidlaw did it for Glasgow. Gilchrist might just be the bloke to put St Andrews on the crime fiction map.'' Daily Record