Rebus, at her request, re-investigates that case; he tangles with the ACU team, and hopes again to see Cafferty connected to the body-in-the-boot murder.

Ian Rankin has stated that inspiration for the novel in part came from the murder of Daniel Morgan,[6] who was a private detective in South London in the late 1980s.

[7] He died of axe wounds to his head in a pub car park in Sydenham, South London in 1987.

Reception to the book was largely positive; Barry Forshaw, writing in The Guardian said "How has Rankin kept the series fresh for 22 novels?

[12]Julian Cole, writing in the Northern Echo, gave the book four stars out of five, and called it "...[a] good rattling read, let down only by too many unnecessary dialogue modifiers.