Karen Pirie is now a DCI working out of Edinburgh  during the time of the Referendum. A skeleton is found atop of an abandoned building which takes Karen to England and brings out mysteries which stretch to the Balkan states and back however there are other forces trying to solve them. McDermid employs an almost formulaic approach to these novels however this one was packed with brutal descriptions and ends in a way which is devastating for the fans in the final moments of the denouement.