On The Cover

Edinburgh, 2025 - an independent, almost crime-free oasis surrounded by anarchic city-states. Except global warming has turned summer into the Big Heat and water, like everything else, is strictly rationed.

The ruling Council of City Guardians has been forced to become more user-friendly. Citizens now live only for the weekly lottery draw while serving the tourists in the year-round festival. So when a recent lottery winner goes missing, subversive investigator Quintilian Dalrymple is called in to deal with a minor case of the summertime blues.

Then a body is discovered face down in the water of Leith - the only clue to the death, a bottle of contraband whisky. Quint thinks he sees the first traces of a ruthless conspiracy to destabilise the city.

The Council, increasingly fearful of losing its grip on power, expects Quint to stop the tormentors dead in the water. But he is having serious difficulty distinguishing friend from foe during the Big Heat. Meanwhile the body count, like the temperature, keeps on rising...

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