On a cold New Year’s Eve night, a young woman lies slumped on a park bench. Snow gathers on her hair. If her glazed eyes were closed, she might be sleeping. Nobody will find her for hours…

Thirty years later, in the Scottish town of Livingston, a retired police officer disappears from her home. A trail of blood leads from the pensioner’s doorstep to the edge of the nearby river, and as he follows it, DS Malkie McCulloch fears the worst. But at the end of the trail, instead of an elderly woman, he finds the body of a young man.

The deceased is identified as a local criminal, and the case appears to be a robbery gone wrong. But Malkie isn’t convinced. How did the pensioner overcome the burglar? And where is she now?

Digging into the former police officer's past, Malkie uncovers a connection with the tragic death of a young woman decades before – and the case is flipped on its head. Is the missing pensioner not as innocent as he’d assumed? Have skeletons in her closet come back to haunt her? Then another body is found, and the link between the crimes of the past and the present becomes chillingly clear…

A gripping Scottish crime thriller featuring DS Malkie McCulloch, a brilliantly complex detective who will risk everything to protect the innocent, set in the shadow of the Pentland Hills. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, JM Dalgliesh and JD Kirk.