Quintin Jardine's twenty-eighth Bob Skinner mystery sees the Edinburgh sleuth plunged into a gripping new case. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner is long out of the police force but trouble has a habit of following him around. So it is that he finds himself in the Palace of Westminster as a shocking act befalls the nation. Hours before the Prime Minster is due to make a controversial statement, she is discovered in her office with a letter opener driven through her skull. Is the act political? Personal? Or even one of terror? Skinner is swiftly enlisted by the Security Service to lead the investigation. Reunited with Met Police Commander Neil McIlhenney, he has forty-eight hours to crack the case - before the press unleash their wrath. There are many in the tangled web of government with cause to act. But the outcome will be one that not even Skinner himself could predict...