Traces of Red is the sum of several interwoven stories about an abandoned baby, two missing young women, a missing husband ... and a dead body. Why did one of them abandoned a baby in an Edinburgh pub? Which one of them lies face-down in the river? Mirabelle finds herself running an unofficial Missing Person's Bureau from her flat in Edinburgh, and DI Sam Burns seems happy to use her expertise to help him find these people, and learn how their stories interlink. The second in the off-beat Reluctant Detective Series about Mirabelle and missing people.