A junkie lies dead in an Edinburgh squat, spreadeagled, cross-like on the floor, between two burned-down candles, a five-pointed star daubed on the wall above. Just another dead addict - until John Rebus begins to chip away at the indifference, treachery, deceit and sleaze that lurks behind the facade of the Edinburgh familiar to tourists. Only Rebus seems to care about a death which looks more like a murder every day, about a seductive danger he can almost taste, appealing to the darkest corners of his mind.

'Rankin's ability to create a credible character, delivering convincing dialogue to complement sinister and hard-hitting plots against vividly detailed atmosphere, is simply awesome'- TIME OUT.

Ian Rankin was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, and his first Rebus novel, Knots & Crosses, was published in 1987. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award, as well as receiving two CWA Dagger Awards. In 2004, he won the prestigious Edgar Award for Resurrection Men. Ian also recently received the OBE for services to literature.

Bill Paterson is one of the media's best-known voices. He is an award-winning actor, who has worked in many TV, film and theatre roles and productions including Marriage Play and Death and the Maiden. Television work includes Wives and Daughters, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The Singing Detective and Licking Hitler and films include The Killing Fields and Truly, Madly, Deeply.