A twenty-nine-year-old man lives alone in his Glasgow flat. The telephone rings; a casual conversation, but behind this a job offer. The clues are there if you know to look for them. He is an expert. A loner. Freelance. Another job is another job, but what if this organization wants more? A meeting at a club. An offer. A target: Lewis Winter, a necessary sacrifice that will be only the first step in an all-out war between crime syndicates the likes of which hasn't been seen for decades. It's easy to kill a man. It's hard to kill a man well. People who do it well know this. People who do it badly find out the hard way. The hard way has consequences.

The breathtaking, devastating second novel in the acclaimed Glasgow Trilogy, a Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year. How does a gunman retire? Frank MacLeod was the best at what he does. Thoughtful. Efficient. Ruthless. But with his health failing him, how long before he's no longer of use to his employers? A new job. A target. But something is about to go horribly wrong. And up-and-coming hitman Calum MacLean will be called upon to pick up the pieces. Most gunmen say goodbye to the world with a bang. Frank's still here. No longer in his prime, certainly. But with decades of experience at the top of his profession. Underestimating such a man could prove to be deadly.

The stunning conclusion to Malcolm Mackay's lauded Glasgow Trilogy returns readers to the city's underworld: a place of dark motives, dangerous allegiances and sudden, tragic ends. It begins with two deaths: a money-man and a police informant. Deaths that offer a unique opportunity to a man like Calum MacLean. A hit man who has finally had enough of killing. Calum plans an unprecedented escape just as his employers need him the most. Glasgow's biggest criminal organizations are gearing up for a final, fatal confrontation. The panic over Calum's abrupt disappearance may finally give Detective Michael Fisher the chance he need to close the case of a lifetime. But first, he must track down a man who has become a master of disappearance. A man who has staked his life on staying in the shadows.