`If we are right about this, the stakes are higher than anything I’ve ever faced. I don’t know if we can handle it`. Four Albanian gangsters have infiltrated Edinburgh. They are smart guys, ruthless operators and deep undercover. MI5 are on their case and, unknown to DCC Bob Skinner and his men, they have set up a drug-dealing sting to flush the gangsters out. The resulting mayhem and violence throws everyone into confusion until the dust settles and they realise the gangsters are preparing a hit on a member of the Royal family – a certain Prince who is attending St Andrew’s University. Meanwhile two high-ranking policemen mourn the loss of a son and a daughter in mysterious circumstances, and then another witnesses his son being abducted. Is someone taking revenge on the police force in a particularly brutal and callous way? Are the crimes linked? Quintin Jardine keeps you guessing until the end in this tautly plotted, powerful and utterly engrossing novel.

click on the cover to buy
read a character profile of Skinner and Blackstone
read an extract