'Unerringly sharp and pioneeringly original, it locks the reader in from start to finish.' Andrew Barrow, Spectator

Winter, 1906. It's Jim Stringer's first day as an official railway detective, but he's not a happy man.

As the rain falls incessantly on the city's ancient streets, the local paper carries a story highly unusual by York standards: two brothers have been shot to death.

Soon Jim enters the orbit of a dangerous, disturbed villain - and discovers that the two murders are barely the start of his plans . . .

'A cracking good thriller.' Independent on Sunday

'Crime narratives dispatched with a Dickensian relish . . . Delectable stuff.' Daily Express

'Has the charm of Alexander McCall Smith's simple-is-good philosophising and its addictive quality.' Metro