This one has Simon Darcourt, a professional assassin (who apparently has appeared in a previous Brookmyre book) setting about a series of very public incarceration and killing of "celebrities" who he's abducted. Assigned to the case is Angelique De Xavier, who for various reasons finds herself trying to get back in touch with Zal Innez (Angelique and Zal both appeared in The Sacred Art of Stealing) as the only person who can help track Darcourt down.

Pretty entertaining one. Zal has honed his magicial act since the previous book, and the description of the tricks he does are always intriguing, but what's nice is the way he uses his conjuring techniques to get himself out of tricky situations, and to help Angelique get Darcourt. And there are quite a few places where we, the readers, have the wool pulled over our eyes by Zal.

Well worth reading.

Re-read in 2015. My note says "Good grief he takes a long time to say stuff. Extremely wordy". I did enjoy it though.

Re-read in 2019. Hadn't realised I'd already read it twice before, but this was the first time on audiobook. This time I thought "There was a huge amount of build up for a reveal which was a bit meh. I’d assumed there would be a big con by Zal at the end but in fact hardly anything.

Very crude-even by Brookmyre's standards it seemed pretty offensive although I suppose that’s what Darcourt is meant to be like. Enjoyed it though"

Completed : 22-Feb-2011

Completed : 21-Jan-2015

Completed : 11-Apr-2019 (audiobook)