It starts with a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks - the heart of Aberdeen's red light district.

For DS Logan MacRae it's a bad start to another bad day. Only a few short months ago he was the golden boy of Grampian police. But one botched raid later he's palmed off on a DI everyone knows it's jinx, waiting for the axe to fall with all the other rejects in the 'Screw-up Squad'.

Logan's not going to take it lying down. He's determined to escape DI Steel and her unconventional methods, and the best way to do that is to crack the case in double-quick time.

But Rosie Williams won't be the only one making an unscheduled trip to the morgue. Across the city six people are burning to death in a petrol-soaked squat, the doors and windows screwed shut from the outside.

And despite Logan's best efforts, it's not long before another prostitute turns up on the slab... Stuart MacBride's characteristic grittiness, gallows humour and lively characterisation are to the fore in his unputdownable second novel, confirming his status as the rising star of crime fiction.