Suspenseful, pause-resisting crime writing at its gripping best featuring DCI Andy Gilchrist and set in St Andrews, Scotland
Will DCI Andy Gilchrist end up like the others - dead, beheaded on a beach? It"s 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.

What secrets from the past was he about to uncover?
When a woman's skeleton is discovered in a shallow grave, DCI Andy Gilchrist is tasked with finding her murderer. But a psychic's warnings and markings on a rusted cigarette lighter found among the rotted remains set Gilchrist off on a trail that will take him back 35 years - back to his past and on course to find his brother's killer in a fatal hit and run accident.

When DCI Andy Gilchrist is called to a crime scene to find an amputated hand clutching a note addressed to him, he is pulled into an investigation that will test him to the limit. Soon other single word clues are found along with amputated body parts and the murderer's vengeful message becomes clear as the identity of the next intended victim is revealed. But when someone close to him disappears, Gilchrist knows he is too late. Together with Nance Wilson, the sexy DC with her own agenda, Gilchrist comes to see the answer to the present murders lies within the secrets of his past.

One psychopath. One killer. The Stabber. Six victims, all wife beaters. Each stabbed to death through their left eye.
Six victims, all wife beaters. Each stabbed to death through their left eye. The cobbled lanes and backstreets of St Andrews provide the setting for these brutal killings. But six unsolved murders and mounting censure from the media force DI Andy Gilchrist off the case. Driven by his fear of failure, and desperate to redeem his career and reputation, Gilchrist vows to catch The Stabber alone...