Craig Russell

The first woman had her lungs ripped out. When the same gruesome ritualistic method was used again, it was clear that the same killer was responsible. But there is no precise evidence to link the two cases, except for a tantalising email. In his desperate attempt to solve the case before more victims are discovered, Jan Fabel of the Hamburg murder squad, gradually uncovers layer upon layer of intrigue.

As Jan Fabel, of the Hamburg murder squad, interprets twisted imagery at a crime scene, it becomes clear that a series of new crimes are a grisly reference to folk stories collected by the Brothers Grimm. The hunt is on for a serial killer who is exploring the darkest, most fundamental fears hidden in ancient fairy tales.

Investigator Lennox just can't stay out of trouble.

Lennox is looking for legitimate cases - anything's better than working for the Three Kings, the crime bosses who run Glasgow's underworld. So when a woman comes into his office and hires him to follow her husband, it seems the perfect case.

And, unusually for Lennox, it's legal.

But this isn't a simple case of marital infidelity. When the people he's following start to track him, once more Lennox must draw on the violent, war-damaged part of his personality as he follows this trail of dead men and broken hearts.

Human remains are dredged up from the Clyde. They've been sleeping the deep, dark sleep for eighteen years. Suddenly Glasgow's underworld is buzzing with the news that the remains are those of 'Gentleman Joe' Strachan, Glasgow's most ruthless armed robber.

When Strachan's daughters hire Lennox to find out who's been sending them cash every year on the anniversary of Strachan's biggest robbery, his instincts tell him the job spells trouble and will throw him back into world of the Three Kings - the crime bosses who run the city.

But he takes the job. And soon learns that ignoring his instincts may cost him his life.

When a body is unearthed in a mini-market car park Jan Fabel, Chief of the Hamburg murder squad, suspects it is a young woman, Monika Krone, who disappeared 15-years earlier. Some days later a prominent artist is murdered in bizarre circumstances. A further three bizarre murders follow and Fabel starts to suspect that they may be linked in some way to the discovery of Monika's body.

Shady private investigator Lennox is a hard man in Glasgow, 1953, where the war may be over but the battle for the streets is just beginning. When Lennox finds himself in the frame for murder, the only way of proving his innocence is to solve the crime - but he'll have to dodge men more deadly than Glasgow's crime bosses before he gets any answers.

Glasgow in the 1950s - private investigator Lennox is keeping a low profile, enjoying a fling with the daughter of shady bookie and greyhound breeder MacFarlane. When MacFarlane is found bludgeoned to death, Lennox is a suspect. Luckily, he has a solid gold alibi - he was in bed with the victim's daughter at the time.

It turns out MacFarlane was into some seriously dodgy stuff. One of Glasgow's notorious Three Kings, crime boss Willie Sneddon, is involved and he's not a man Lennox wants to cross. But there's an even bigger player out there, an elusive villain who makes the Three Kings look like minnows. Lennox is going to get his fingers burnt, badly.

Lennox liked 'Quiet' Tommy Quaid. Perhaps it's odd for a private detective to like - even admire - a career thief, but he was the sort of man everyone liked, because he was exactly who and what he seemed to be. But when Tommy turns up dead, Lennox and the rest of Glasgow will find out just how wrong they were.