The gripping new thriller in the Sunday Times-bestselling phenomenon that is the Inspector McLean series, from one of Scotland's most celebrated crime writers

A macabre ancient artefact. An innovative bio tech company connected to the highest levels of government. And the trail of bloodshed in its wake.

Inspector Tony McLean is called to a routine break-in at Drake BioTech, a trendsetting Edinburgh start-up at the cutting edge of DNA re-engineering. It's well below McLean's pay-grade, but given the extensive political connections of its eccentric owner Nathaniel Drake, he doesn't have a choice. Even if nothing appears to have been stolen.

A missing person soon turns up dead with no signs of trauma or suggested cause of death, and still the police can find no connection between the strange events at play in the city. But when another victim is discovered cradling a small wooden box, McLean and DI Janie Harrison realise that this might be just the beginning of something even more sinister.

What will those responsible do to finally get their hands on it? Or, more terrifying still, how much death and ruin might this unassuming object have in store?

Praise for James Oswald:

'The new Ian Rankin' Daily Record

'Creepy, gritty and gruesome' Sunday Mirror

'Crime fiction's next big thing' Sunday Telegraph