Each society gets the serial killers it deserves... How sick are you of our vapid celebrity culture, reality TV shows and tawdry talent contests? Not as sick as Simon Darcourt—but let’s face it, nobody is as sick as Simon Darcourt. A deranged but inventive killer with a genuinely wicked sense of humour, he is busy creating his own celebrity talent show, one that is generating more publicity than its contestants have ever had in their lives. The catch is that those lives won’t be very long. With the police losing the ratings war, they turn to Angelique de Xavia, a cop who has crossed this psycho’s path before. Having given the best years of her life to a thankless career, concluding unfinished business may be the only motivation keeping her in the job. However, the police are not the only people who want Darcourt, and ruthless measures are engaged against Angelique as leverage in determining his final destination. Now she’s faced not only with tracking down her quarry and spiriting him from under the noses of her fellow cops, but the even more daunting task of ensuring she doesn’t end up dead once she’s served her purpose. Scared and alone, Angelique knows she’s got a snowball’s chance of pulling this off, which is why she’s going to need a little magic... A viciously dark satire, a breathlessly exhilarating thriller and a most unlikely romantic comedy: this is Christopher Brookmyre at the very top of his game.