In Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park, the bodies of two youths lie with bullet holes in their heads. Hungover, nicotine-starved and ill-attired, procurator fiscal Maddy Shannon attends the scene, unaware that this grim morning is about to spiral out of control. The corpses have been carefully disfigured, perhaps signs of gangland revenge or, worse, ritual slayings. As the gruesome complexities of the investigation multiply, the fragmented story of Maddy's immigrant ancestors emerges as a counterpoint to brutality and corruption. As she struggles to prove her worth against the darkest side of human nature, we discover the history and heartbreak that created this strong-willed woman. Potter's Field is the first of a Maddy Shannon crime mystery series.

Procurator fiscal Maddy Shannon awakens in her West End Glasgow flat to a hangover and several mysteries, starting with who is the strange man in her bed? Shortly after discovering the man’s identity, Maddy learns that his boss, a successful defence lawyer, was met a gruesome end in his posh Merchant City office. With a bad reputation for getting too close to her cases, Maddy tries tostand back from this one. But as the murders continue, and Maddy herself receives a disturbing message, she realises too close is unavoidable, and winds up in a race against the measured malevolence of an unknown killer. Maddy’s unorthodox meetings with Detective Inspector Alan Coulter further complicate an increasingly unmanageable case whose roots may go back to one Maddy failed to win. The suspects pile up until they finally topple. Chris Dolan’s follow-up to Potter’s Field is at once frightening and funny, earthy and insightful. It’s a love poem to Glasgow, a technicolour rendering of a city whose beauty lies in its many contradictory qualities.