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This is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organisations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental. The only exceptions to this are the characters Julie Bevan, Heather Gallacher, Alex Clark, and Rachel Gray who the author has been authorised to fictionalise and include within this volume. All behaviour, history, and character traits assigned to their fictional representations have been designed to serve the needs of the narrative and do not necessarily bear any resemblance to the real person.
The quotation ‘Clap in his walie nieve a blade …’ is from Robert Burns’s ‘Address to a Haggis’, published in 1786.
HarperCollinsPublishers,
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London, SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Stuart MacBride 2019
Stuart MacBride asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Cover images © seany.bo / Stockimo / Alamy Stock Photo
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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SOURCE ISBN: 9780008208264
Ebook Edition © MAY 2019 ISBN: 9780008208288
Version: 2019-05-17
For Grendel (again)
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Without Whom
— I want you to pretend — that nothing bad is going to happen to you …
Chapter 1
— and then there was screaming —
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
— this is why we can’t have nice things —
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
— sins of the father, sins of the son —
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
— dead letters and abandoned mail —
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
— the blade, the reality-TV star, and the screaming —
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
— in case of emergency: break glass —
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
— broken promises, windows, and bones —
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
— one year later —
Chapter 49
About the Author
By Stuart MacBride
About the Publisher
As always I’ve received a lot of help from a lot of people while I was writing this book, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank: Sergeant Bruce Crawford, star of Skye and screen, who answers far more daft questions than anyone should ever have to, as do Professor Dave Barclay and Professor James Grieve; Sarah Hodgson, Jane Johnson, Julia Wisdom, Jaime Frost (who enables my sushi addiction),