Binary

Dundee. A Monday morning in September.

A woman sits in her car in the car park of the police headquarters for forty minutes with her hands on the wheel. In her handbag are four sides of paper written in pencil, about a music teacher, and singing lessons after school, in 1990.

In Scotland, one voice is not enough.

Then there are two more. Women from the same school, the same corridor, the same practice rooms. Except that two of them had found each other first, and talked for hours, before either went to the police.

Detective Inspector Ruairidh MacRae writes down every word, exactly, and does not know what he thinks. Procurator Fiscal Depute Niamh Tolmie does not know either. Advocate Depute Hugh Lamont KC, for the first time in his career, takes a case to trial without knowing. And defending a seventy-eight-year-old choirmaster who will not let anybody call the women liars is Tess Gallacher, who is famous for never being cruel to a witness.

Under Scotland's new rules, the jury has two verdicts. Some of them will want a third.

The court will hear their verdict.

You will see their votes.

Binary is the sixth novel in The Fifteen, a Scottish courtroom series that follows one prosecution team through eight cases on either side of the reform of the Scottish jury, and shows the reader the one room no real Scot is ever allowed to describe.

Perfect for readers of Scott Turow, John Grisham, Denise Mina and Anatomy of a Scandal.