David Ashton Book order (chronological)

It's springtime and Jean Brash, Mistress of the Just Land (best bawdy-hoose in Edinburgh), is raring to go. But past, present and future collide to undermine that desire. A theatre company arrives in Leith to perform KING LEAR. A ruthless robbery is planned, and a gruesome murder committed, both of which set Inspector James McLevy on the prowl; and Jean's past returns in the form of a bad seed from a vicious killer. Even more lethally, her own lost family life explodes in the present, as a wild young actress who trails violence and death behind her involves Jean in a dangerous complex game that threatens to destroy the very root of her identity. When you look death in the face, it's best not to blink - otherwise the play is over.

Known as the father of forensics and a likely influence on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, real-life police inspector James McLevy is here reinvented by David Ashton in a thrilling mystery - the fourth in a series - set in dark, violent Victorian Edinburgh.