Rebus comes out of retirement...to save his nemesis.
Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is feeling the heat. She's
investigating the death of a senior government prosecutor, David Minton,
who has friends in high places. When one of their own is killed, the
powers that be want answers fast. But Clarke is puzzled: if Minton died
in a robbery as everyone thinks, why is nothing missing from his home?
The answer may lie not in what was taken, but in what was left behind at
the scene -- an ominous note.
Malcolm Fox is feeling useless. Shunned by his colleagues because of his
past in the Complaints bureau, he's been reassigned to a grunt detail,
helping a surveillance team -- one that trusts him even less than his
own boss does -- track a notorious Glasgow crime family. Helping Clarke
with the Minton case is the only thing that makes Fox feel like a real
cop.
Newly minted civilian John Rebus is feeling restless. Being a cop is in
his blood and he's failing miserably at retirement. So when Clarke and
Fox ask for his help, Rebus doesn't need long to consider his options.
But before he can get his bearings, a call comes from Rebus's old
nemesis -- "Big Ger" Cafferty. Someone just fired a bullet through his
front window -- and sent him a note identical to Minton's. The normally
unflappable old gangster is on edge, but for the life of him Cafferty
can't figure out who he's wronged. And the only man he trusts with his
life is Rebus.
As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox, and Rebus to connect the
dots and save their unlikely ally Cafferty, whose past harbors a
shocking secret that implicates Minton's friends in an unspeakable
crime. Even Dogs in the Wild reunites crime fiction legend Ian
Rankin's greatest characters in an explosive story exploring the darkest
corners of our desires.
