[close] A powerful new stand-alone novel from Scotland’s princess of crime -- author of the acclaimed Garnethill trilogy.

Lachlan Harriot is in a state of shock. His wife Susie has been convicted of the murder of serial killer Andrew Gow, a prisoner in her care. Unless Harriot can come up with grounds for an appeal, Susie will be given a life sentence, depriving her of her home, her family and her two-year-old daughter.

Harriot is convinced that his wife, a respected forensic psychiatrist, is innocent, and each night he climbs the stairs to her study and goes through her papers, laboriously transcribing into his computer her case notes, her interviews with Gow and the press cuttings from the trial. But his search for the truth soon raises more questions than answers. Why had Susie stolen prison files and then lied about it? What was the nature of her relationship with Gow? And what is it in her study that she doesn’t want her husband to find? As things become ever more complex, he must decide what to do with a discovery that involves violence, sexual obsession, lust and ultimate betrayal. [close]