While in hospital after a hit-and-run accident, Gus Dury's best friend, Hod, asks him to investigate the ritual hanging of an Edinburgh University student. The murder victim's mother is a high-profile actress, who has promised a big-money reward. Gus, desperate for money, goes undercover at the university to track down those responsible.

In a cold, windswept field on the outskirts of Edinburgh lies the brutally mutilated body of a young woman. As DI Rob Brennan looks at the tangled mass of limbs and blood, he feels his heart freeze. Like Fiona Gow five years earlier, this girl has been strangled with her own stockings, sexually mutilated and her eyes have been gouged out.

Gus Dury once had a high-flying career as a journalist and a wife he adored. But now he is living on the edge, a drink away from Edinburgh's down-and-outs, drifting from bar to bar, trying not to sign divorce papers. The road takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son.

When the gangland owner of a pit bull that killed a toddler is found gutted on Corstorphine Hill, Gus Dury is asked to investigate. He soon finds himself a pawn in the warring underworld of a divided city.

Gus Dury is a changed man. He is off the Edinburgh streets & back with estranged wife, Debs. He has promised her that he won't get involved in any more dodgy cases. Above all, he's off the drink. Then his brother, Michael, is found dead with a bullet in his heart and Gus' life begins to unravel all over again.

Four teenagers find the mutilated corpse of a young girl stuffed into a dumpster in an Edinburgh alleyway. Who is she? Where did she come from? Who killed her and why? Inspector Rob Brennan is still shocked by the senseless shooting of his brother. The case of the dumpster girl looks perfect for getting him back on track.