Quint Dalrymple's first investigation outside the former Scotland combines a taut highly original crime novel with pungent political comment.
It's April 2028. Youth gangs roam the streets of independent Edinburgh, forcing the ruling Council of City Guardians to seek advice. Experts from the utopian university-state of New Oxford recommend an extreme deterrent - a maximum security prison alongside the central tourist zone. But at the prison opening ceremony an Edinburgh guardian is shot.
Quint gathers evidence linking New Oxford to the assassination. Sent there to close the case, he finds a ruthless administration beneath the glossy hi-tech veneer. And a conspiracy which leads from New Oxford's mysterious heart - the place known only as the House of Dust - to his home city.
Hugely entertaining... engagingly imagined - The Times on BODY POLITIC
First-rate crime fiction with an original twist - Sunday Telegraph on THE BONE YARD
Johnston brings an intelligent perspective to the dark excitement of the thriller - Nicholas Blincoe, Observer on WATER OF DEATH
This futuristic series is still refreshingly original and entertaining - Sunday Telegraph on THE BLOOD TREE
Johnston's plotting is consummate and his characterisation deft. He is also a very funny political satirist...Very enjoyable - Observer on THE HOUSE OF DUST