Gil Cunningham has a most unusual case to enquire into this time—so much so that he feels as if he has stepped into an old ballad.  Thirty years ago, young Davie Drummond vanished, and now he is back and barely a day older.  His family thinks that the fairies fairies had stolen him away for his beautiful singing voice, and now three other people have also vanished for the same reason.   Only eyewitnesses say that it was the devil that came calling for them, saying that there was a need for good singers in hell.  Away from Gil's usual, more prosaic streets of Glasgow in this wild, Highland setting, maybe anything can happen—but he thinks the agency behind these cases is all too human.

This is, in my opinion, one of the best historical mystery series for a number of reasons. Every book to date has contained a rattling good plot, lively and engaging characters, plenty of period ambience and a good sense of time and place.  If you are one of the readers who find the dialect a wee bit much then you will be pleased that there is less in this novel, and all of it can easily be guessed.  Ms McIntosh has wisely done what many writers of long series do, taken the characters out of their usual setting and sent them elsewhere.  This rural setting, where people still believe in the old tales, is a sharp contrast to Glasgow, and—like me—you might wish for a family tree to get all the complicated Drummond genealogies right.  As usual this is very far from being a fast read, rather a book to read slowly and savor for the treat that it is.