Gil Cunningham had hoped that the first time he set foot in the brothel on the Drygate it would also be his last, but by the time all was settled he felt quite at home within its artfully painted chambers. The bawdy house, along with the neighbouring property and two more in Strathblane, are all part of a deal offered to Gil and his wife Alys by the forceful Dame Isabella. Her proposal also involves Gil's young ward, and matters are further confused by an outbreak of counterfeit coins in Glasgow, which Gil has been ordered to investigate. Then Dame Isabella is found dead in strange circumstances, and the more Gil pursues the cause of her death, the more false coins he finds. And then the bawd-mistress, the enigmatic Madam Xanthe, gets involved and rumours circulate that the Devil is abroad in Strathblane. By the time Gil and Alys have untangled matters, some very surprising - and sinister - thing have come to light...

Although he was watching closely when the mummer was poisoned, it took Gil Cunningham several days and three more poisonings to work out how it was done. Danny Gibson and Nanty Bothwell, rivals for the affections of Agnes Renfrew, the apothecary's pretty daughter, are also good friends. When they both take part in the festive play at the house of Gil's sister Kate, it ends in Danny's death, apparently by poison from his friend's flask. So was it deliberate, and if not, why won't Nanty defend himself? Why is Agnes's eccentric brother Nicol so insistent that Nanty had the wrong flask, and why do none of the apothecaries in Glasgow recognize the poison it held? Gil, convinced Nanty is innocent, sets out to answer these questions and finds himself enmeshed in the tensions of the Renfrew household and the tangled relationships among the apothecary houses. And then a second and third death confuse matters further still, and bring Gil's wife Alys into the investigation.

The warden of St Serf's has been found dead in the almshouse garden. He appears to have been killed on the previous night but there are those who are convinced he was present at that morning's service, The elderly residents, the almshouse nurse and Humphrey, her deranged favourite, have all been set against one another by the dead man's scheming - and then there is the discarded mistress and almshouse ghost to consider.Tracing the dead man's last movements between the Cathedral precinct and the shores of the Clyde, Gil Cunningham is both helped and hindered by his two sisters who have come to Glasgow for his wedding to Alys. An uncanny event followed by the arrival of Gil's godfather, precipitates the crisis. Finally, it is Alys who helps Gil identify the warden's killer. PRAISE FOR PAT MCINTOSH 'McInotosh's characterisations and period detail are first rate and bode well for future entries in this series.' Publishers Weekly 'The next Cunningham adventure...

Praise for Pat McIntosh: "McIntosh's characterizations and period details are first rate and bode well for future entries in this series."--Publishers Weekly "McIntosh provides an intelligent, authentic, and suspenseful historical whodunit that will please the most demanding of Ellis Peters' fans."--Booklist Gil Cunningham, a young notary, has escaped a life in the Church to become the archbishop's questioner, only to be accused of causing a man's death by witchcraft. Gil and his young wife must solve the mystery to save him. Pat McIntosh was born and brought up in Lanarkshire, Scotland. She worked in Glasgow before settling on Scotland's west coast.From the Hardcover edition.

The barrel should have contained books - instead it held treasure and a severed head...Gil Cunningham and his old acquaintance, Glasgow merchant Augie Morison, expecting a delivery of books from the Low Countries, report the gruesome substitute to the Provost, and at the inquest the next morning Morison is accused of the murder and imprisoned. He appeals to Gil, who sets out with his friend and future father in law Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason, to find the treasure's owner, trace the barrel and identify the dead man.The trail they follow leads them from the court of James IV at Stirling via a cooper's yard in Linlithgow, to another death on the bare slopes of the Pentland Hills.

In Sir William's remote part of Scotland it seems almost possible that a young boy could have been stolen away by the fairies and returned forty years later, no older - and if he isn't Davie Drummond, who is he? And then he suffers a succession of near-fatal 'accidents'. Could there be a connection with four other local singers who have vanished, one of them with political information of value to Scotland's enemies? Gil and his wife Alys have been sent into Perthshire to investigate. Gil's pursuit of the missing singers leads him to a vision of the Devil and the reappearance of an old adversary, while Alys finds herself drawn deeply into the affairs of the Drummond family, particularly the mysterious Davie.