Helen Carter has just landed her first case as a detective: a murder in an abandoned cinema. A mysterious clock-like symbol is drawn on the wall . . . in blood.

Stranger still is what the killer left behind: the business card of an ex-cop.

Since being promoted from WPC, Helen is having trouble making her mark in the male-dominated Edinburgh CID, working under Inspector Jack Craven. He's not happy about having a woman on his team. Witnesses won't talk to her, her colleagues don't take her seriously.

And now a body turns up in a sweet shop with a pocket watch shoved in his mouth.

The clock is ticking to stop a serial killer.

Fans of Ashes to Ashes, Caro Ramsay, Helen H. Durrant, J.D. Kirk, Angela Marsons, Rachel McLean, Val McDermid and Alex Gray will love this retro Scottish crime series set in the 1970s.

"A brilliant debut." LORRAINE MACE, Author of the DI Sterling Thriller Series