New Year's Eve (Hogmanay) in the depths of the Scottish Highlands...In their haunted mansion, the eccentric and troubled Maxwell family brings in the New Year with a big party. Unknown to them, they have uninvited guests – a perilously incompetent set of Glasgow criminals.Feisty single mother Ariadne McSween is not having a good New Year. She has her own reasons for helping her shady brother and his even less savoury accomplices commit burglary. But nothing is going right.By a series of accidents, Addie comes face to face with the house's dark and dangerous owner – concert pianist and accused murderer, John Maxwell, who just happens to be gorgeous.Then, Addie's violent and erratic accomplice, Shug, takes their hosts hostage. Now, how is Addie meant to get everyone out of there before Shug kills someone? Or before she falls utterly in love with the chief victim of her crime...who has his own ways of fighting back, some of which involve very bizarre ghosts.(Formerly published as Ariadne's Thread)