Edinburgh 2039. Cars drive themselves and robots do the housework. Gender is fluid and polygamy is normal. Farming animals is banned and vast new forests have been planted. The rich are richer than ever but the government has no money, jobs are almost impossible to find and debts are collected without mercy. The Escape Room is the busiest euthanasia facility in the city. Before his turn came, terminally ill Detective Inspector Duncan Chisholm placed a recording device on the slaughter room floor. Now his apprentice, PC Justine Claverhouse, is receiving video files which prove that instead of being dispatched painlessly, some customers are being used for medical experiments. The evidence points to a shadowy organisation of scientists called the Guild, which has abandoned all ethics in the pursuit of knowledge and immortality. PC Claverhouse must bring them to justice before they catch up with her.
With elements of satire, horror and science fiction, this re-imagining of the Burke and Hare story unwinds across a dystopian future Edinburgh with many references to the city of today and its bloody past. The book builds on plot threads and characters from 'Jacobites by Name' but can be read out of order.