Rebus finds himself with a number of problems on his hands. His wayward brother, Michael, has returned to Edinburgh in need of accommodation — with only the box-room in Rebus's flat available. While out drinking, he meets an old army friend, Deek Torrance, who admits to being involved in shady activities, telling Rebus he can get his hands on 'anything from a shag to a shooter'. Rebus spends so long out with Deek that he misses dinner with his girlfriend, Doctor Patience Aitken. Furious, she locks him out of her flat, forcing him to sleep in his own flat, on the sofa.

It’s a long, hot summer in the Peak District, but the blue skies are darkened by police helicopters and the sound of birdsong is drowned out by the increasing hysteria of a full-scale search operation for a missing teenage girl. Laura Vernon is smart, sexy and the keeper of many secrets, but now she’s lying dead in a thicket in the heart of the country.

Harry Dickinson found the body, but what instincts make him so bent on obstructing the police investigation into Laura’s murder? And what do he and his two fellow retired lead miners find to talk about on those long, balmy nights in the pub, hunched over their game of dominoes?

Graham Vernon is a man who knows all about secrets, and the police are at a loss to understand the attitude of this powerful businessman and his glamorous wife to the death of their precious daughter. The Vernons are holding something back. But what could be more important that the discovery of Laura’s brutal murderer?

Ben Cooper, a young Detective Constable living with tragedy, has known the villagers all his life, but his instinctive feelings about the case are called into question by the arrival of Diane Fry, a ruthlessly ambitious DC from outside the division. As Ben and Diane take the first steps in a complicated dance of suspicion, attraction and frustration, they discover that to understand the present, they must also understand the past — and in a world where no one is entirely innocent, pain and suffering can be the only outcome.

The South East London police squad are suffering collective burn out: Detective Sergeant Brant is hitting the blues and physically assaulting the police shrink. Chief Inspector Roberts’ wife has died in a horrific road accident and he takes solace in gut-rot red wine.

Black WPC Falls becomes lethally involved with a junior member of the British National Party and the Super’s golden boy, PC McDonald, is investigating the death of a man he accidentally killed. Only Porter Nash’s star appears to be in the ascendancy.

The team never had it so bad and when a serial killer takes his show on the road, things get worse. Nicknamed ‘The Blitz’, a vicious murderer is aiming for tabloid glory by killing cops. Harold Dunphy, ace crime reporter believes he’s on to the story of the decade and the police have never had more incentive to catch a serial killer.