The title of the book is a mondegreen, Rankin having misheard the Scottish singer songwriter Jackie Leven singing "Standing in Another Man's Rain", which mistake he gives to Rebus.

[2] The mother of a missing girl enlists his help in finding out what happened to her daughter, leading Rebus to uncover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to the millennium.

The serial killer has found his victims on the A9 highway and Rebus travels to Pitlochry and Inverness several times, driving as far north as his daughter Samantha's home.

[4] The Metro gave the book two stars out of five calling it "Mediocre at best" and noted that the door remains open for another Rebus novel; "Let's hope it's better than this one.

"[5] Similarly, John Dugdale, writing in The Sunday Times, said that "Rebus’s comeback novel is hence a bewildering mixture of good and bad, interlacing an impeccably crafted whodunnit.