Internationally bestselling author Christopher Brookmyre has been as lauded for his dark sense of humor as his brilliant suspense plotting. Now available for the first time in the US, this prize-winning Brookmyre classic hits all the usual crime fiction marks: intrigue, espionage, violence, vacuuming. As a teenager Jane Bell had dreamt of playing in the casinos of Monte Carlo in the company of James Bond, but in her punk phase she’d got herself pregnant and by the time she reaches forty-six she’s a grandmother, her dreams as dry as the dust her Dyson sucks up from her hall carpet. Then her son Ross, a researcher working for an arms manufacturer in Switzerland, is forced to disappear before some rather shady and dangerous characters persuade him to part with the secrets of his research. But they are not the only ones desperate to locate him. Ross’s firm also hires a team of security experts—headed by the enigmatic Bett, they have little in common apart from total professionalism and a thorough dis-regard for the law. Bett believes the key to Ross’s whereabouts is his mother, and in one respect he is right, but even he is taken aback by the verve underlying her determination to secure her son’s safety. The teenage dreams of fast cars, high-tech firepower and extreme action had always promised to be fun and games, but in real life it’s likely someone is going to lose an eye . . .