Daring, audacious and mind-blowing - or terrifying, brutal and horrific. Scotland has been home to some of Britain's most high profile robberies and Heist lifts the lid on some of those notorious raids, reopening the files on both solved and unsolved cases. By retracing the steps of the robbers and through interviews with experts and those who had their lives hit by the incidents, the book puts a new slant on some jaw-dropping crimes. From one of the highest profile art thefts of the modern era to an SAS style aerial assault on a bank, Heist tracks raids on everything from stately homes to industrial units as a scourge of modern society is highlighted. Heist reveals the lasting repercussions of one of the country's most high profile thefts, when one of Britain's richest aristocrats suffered the theft of a GBP5million Leonardo da Vinci painting from his family's Scottish castle. This book also details the Stone of Destiny's theft by Scottish Nationalists from Westminster Abbey. And Heist sheds light on the fantastic fifties, the swinging sixties and psychedelic seventies which proved a headache for police, as criminals cottoned on to the rich pickings to be had at Scotland's banks.

Paul Smith is an established non-fiction author, with 18 titles for a range of publishers including Black and White, Birlinn, Mainstream and Pitch. A former journalist, including more than eight years as a sports-writer regionally and nationally, he has worked in communications and media for more than 25 years.