After Mistress of the Just Land, the second adventure in David Ashton's Jean Brash series...

It's Spring and Jean Brash, Mistress of the Just Land (best bawdy-hoose in Edinburgh) is raring to go. But past, present and future collide to undermine that desire.

A theatre company arrives in Leith to perform King Lear. A ruthless robbery is planned, a gruesome murder committed, both of which set Inspector James McLevy on the prowl, and Jean's past returns in the form of bad seed from a vicious killer.

Even more lethally, her own lost family life explodes in the present, as a wild young actress who trails violence and death behind her, involves Jean in a dangerous complex game that threatens to destroy the very root of her identity.

When you look death in the face, it's best not to blink - otherwise the play is over.