It’s the run-up to Christmas, 1998. On the Isle of Mull, Sergeant Ivor Punch is losing himself in his vinyl collection, a tragic anniversary and too much single malt whisky. But news of a missing child soon brings him back to his senses. And as word spreads of more strange disappearances, an aircraft vanishing from the sky and a famous classical musician gone with it, it seems a sinister plot holds the island in its grip.

Punch thought he knew the secrets of this place, its people and stories. Yet as a grisly trail of effigies and clues are discovered, he struggles to untangle past mysteries and find out what’s really happening right under his nose. And time is fast running out for the policeman that locals call ‘The Clock’.