Cumberland's Cradle [first edition]

Lanner Castle is a forbidding granite conglomeration of pseudo-Gothic towers and crenellations on an island in tiny Loch Huich. The locals know little about its present owner, the reclusive Mr Robertson, except that he is wealthy, writes antiquarian books and owns the most comprehensive accumulation of torture instruments in private hands. But there are those who know more about Mr Robertson and his past - and of those people he is terrified. Now a series of omens - two of his guard dogs and his parrot killed on his own torture implements - suggests that Mr Robertson's fortress is not as impregnable as he believed. Calling in international security expert Tim Lacy to install the latest intruder tracking and warning devices, he goes into hiding. But Lacy cannot prevent the pride of the gruesome collection, Cumberland's Cradle, from being stolen. And two days later, Mr Robertson is found fatally reunited with his property. Why are the police warned off the murder investigation? Where do drug-runners and Special Branch fit into the picture? What is the connection of this murder with the suppression of the Jacobites in 1745? Finding the answers to these questions will carry Tim Lacy into the greatest danger he has ever faced...