This book contains two of the cases of DCI Ian Forsyth. In the first, a number of men are tortured and killed, but there seems, at first, no connection between them. With Forsyth on holiday, DS Alistair MacRae and his team establish the connection and find the two people who complete the circle. When one of these two is killed, MacRae puts forward a solution to the mystery. But it is left to Forsyth to deduce who is really responsible when he gets back from holiday. In the second case, the son of wealthy, professional parents is abducted. When the paying of the ransom goes wrong, the kidnapper states that he will kill the child because the police have been brought in. leading MacRae to believe that the child may have been taken by the kidnapper to revenge himself on one of the parents. But Forsyth is able to deduce the real reason for the abduction and to return the child to his anxious mother.