Romanno Bridge

A rugby-playing half-Maori named Leo Nagotoa stands in the sleet by Romanno Bridge in the Scottish Borders, trying to thumb a lift when his Destiny slithers up alongside him.

A motorcyclist with a stolen ring walks into Rothiemurchus Forest until he finds a quiet place to die.

A woman with an eventful past has signed the Official Secrets Act and gone to Dumfries to forget a man and keep out of trouble.

In comfortable Crieff, a retired historian publishes an obscure article on the survival of Columba’s Pillow – the Stone of Destiny – then has his throat cut.

A man with a long blade in a tan holster under his suit, a fondness for bird watching, and memories of his short-lived punk band Anger Management, has taken a commission to retrieve an object so valuable and mythic it might not exist.

The hunt for the crowning stone of the Dalriadic kings, St Columba’s travelling altar, Jacob’s Pillow, the Stone of Scone – whatever it is, it is worth enough to make life cheap for some and dear to others – has begun.