Reinstated on the force, demoted, and with a chip on his shoulder, Rebus reteams with internal affairs officer Malcolm Fox to solve a cold case from thirty years ago.

John Rebus, as incapable of settling into his retirement as he is of playing by the rules, investigates a cold case from the 1970s involving a gorgeous and wealthy female socialite who was found dead in a bedroom at one of Edinburgh's most luxurious hotels. No one was ever found guilty, but the scandalous circumstances of the murder have kept the town talking for over forty years. Now, Rebus has his own reasons to investigate, but his inquiries quickly...

Nobody likes The Complaints--they're the cops who investigate other cops. It's a department known within the force as "The Dark Side," and it's where Malcolm Fox works. His new case: investigate a cop named Jamie Breck. As Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks--dangerous knowledge, especially when a vicious murder takes place far too close to home.

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghost talker, and she now speaks to Edinburgh's dead - carrying messages to the living - but when she learns someone is bewitching children she investigates and discovers an occult library, a taste for hidden magic, and a wealth of Edinburgh's dark secrets.

Desperate for money to look after her family, Ropa Moyo accepts a job at the magical private hospital Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, but when her investigation into a coma patient leads her to the Edinburgh Ordinary School for Boys, she learns a long-dormant and malevolent entity has taken hold in this world.