1587. After three long years, exiled from home and family, and drawn into the depths of the London underworld under the tutelage of Elizabeth I's spymaster Francis Walsingham, Hew returns to Scotland with his new English wife, Frances.

The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots has unleashed a torrent of anti-English sentiment in the Scottish people and fear in King James VI, jeopardising Hew's now unlawful marriage. However, the king invites Hew to investigate the perplexing meaning of a death's head painting that has come into his possession. What does it symbolise, and is it a message from his dead mother? Are the local painters all that they appear?

If Hew solves the mystery, his marriage to Frances will be blessed. The stakes have never been higher as he embarks on a quest for love and life.

Queen & Country is the fifth Hew Cullan Mystery by Shirley McKay.