In MURDERS OF NOTE DCI Ian Forsyth sees more in the mugging of a student after he has left an Edinburgh city centre bar than DS Alistair MacRae does. His version is justified when one of the people involved in the mugging is murdered. When a further person involved is found dead in his tower block flat, Forsyth is able from the clues available to deduce who is responsible for the killings and obtain the necessary evidence to convince a jury that his solution is the correct one. In THE ISLAND OF DEATH a number of people are lured to an island off the east coast of Scotland, trapped there and killed off one by one. The Chief Constable is unconvinced by the solution proposed and asks Forsyth to come out of retirement and look at the case. He gets MacRae to do his leg work for him and, when MacRae reports, Forsyth is able to deduce who was responsible for the killings and obtain the concrete evidence that shows that his deductions are correct,