Scottish police inspector Jim Taggert, brilliantly played by Mark McManus, has already proven his competence to millions of viewers of the television series of the same name. Now writer Peter Cave introduces the famous detective's investigative methods. The murder investigation begins with the discovery of two skulls during the construction of a new road. Inspector Taggert is trying to establish a connection between the skulls and the theft of poisonous snakes from the laboratory of a pharmaceutical company. Translation taken from The book’s text has been translated from the original language using an artificial intelligence system. In most cases, the translation is accurate and clear, but occasionally there may be incorrect phrasing or individual words left untranslated.