The follow up to White's acclaimed The Fountain in the Forest.

Police stations are outdated, and AI’s make more efficient detectives, or so says a UK Home Office determined to make cuts.

When the sole witness in a trafficking case is discovered brutally murdered, a brass horseshoe forced between his teeth, Detective Sergeant Rex King is summoned back to London and into a labyrinth of memory, music, and political unrest. From The Clash’s ragged 1985 busking tour to the fractured legacy of the anti-nuclear movement, Rex follows threads that tug uncomfortably at his own history – echoes he can’t quite place, shadows that refuse to settle.

When Rex’s boss, DCI ‘Lollo’ Lawrence, suddenly disappears, and long-buried papers from the Miners’ Strike surface, he must work alongside a sharp young detective, a seasoned former soul boy, and the National Crime Agency’s unsettlingly brilliant new AI. Yet the deeper he travels, the more he finds the investigation folding back on him: professional loyalties strained, personal relationships tested, and accusations from his undercover past threatening to unmake him.

Two murders, one ‘misper’ and a force under fire – has former ‘spycop’ DS Rex King finally met his match?

“This is not your average thriller, this is your exceptional experimental crime novel. For Tony White to write a sequel to The Fountain in the Forest, to merge the avant-garde with the whodunnit . . . is to rub out much of what has gone before in crime fiction.” 3am Magazine

“Here’s something com­pletely dif­fer­ent. White’s epic police thriller sports a com­plex and engross­ing plot, revolving around the many secrets held by former under­cover cop Rex King, and par­tic­u­larly his involve­ment in the Miners’ Strike, all com­plic­ated by the appear­ance of a daugh­ter he never knew he had. White com­bines all this, though, with a play­ful love of digres­sion. Each chapter includes all the solu­tions to a quick cross­word, along with a cor­nu­copia of fas­cin­at­ing trivia.” Mail on Sunday