A COMING STORM. A KILLER UNLEASHED.

A body is found in a park in the middle of Glasgow. Arms and legs bound by strong, thin wire, small cuts made in the neck and the groin, arteries severed. The murder was surgical, the methods used fastidious and precise. Four days later, another body, another woman, a different park, the murder committed with the same surgical precision.

The city, slowly trying to emerge from the throes of a long, cold, deadly winter, is thrown into panic, and officers are called from all outlying stations to the centre. DS Hutton is given speculative leads to follow, people who might have known both victims.

And so it is that he comes to interview Dr Crispin Thebes. Retired art dealer, a man who sits at his workshop window by the Clyde, making model ships from scratch. Exact replicas, made with immaculate care. Surgical. Fastidious. Precise…