Gil Cunningham series #3

The barrel should have contained books--instead it held treasure and a severed head...

Gil Cunningham and his old acquaintance, Glasgow merchant Augie Morison, had been expecting a delivery of books from the Low Countries, and found the gruesome substitute. They report their find to the Provost but at the inquest the next morning Morison is accused of murder and imprisoned. To prove the merchant's innocence, Gil sets out with his friend and future father-in-law, Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason, to track down the treasure's owner and identify the dead man.

The trail they follow leads them from the court of James IV at Stirling, to an unexpected death on the bare slopes of the Pentland Hills.