Shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize 2024

Stolen whisky, drug dealers, bent cops, social influencers and yakuza mobsters. And Robbie Gould is caught in the middle.

1964. A hoard of the finest Scotch whisky ever made – the legendary Dalziel Double Proof – goes missing.

2023. Albie, youngest son of the wealthy Dalziel family, vanishes. His desperate mother turns to Robbie Gould, a disgraced reporter with a reputation as a 'psychic crimebuster'.

Broke and unemployed, Gould is in no position to turn down the job. He throws himself into a twisted chain of criminals, bent cops and Japanese gangsters, but when someone fires a shotgun through his door, he realises he doesn't need supernatural powers to see how deadly the situation has become.

'A heady mix of corrupt coppers, dodgy drug dealers and Japanese gangsters, all spiced with dark humour' – Sally McDonald, Sunday Post