Forensic psychologist, Jill Kennedy, has given up police work to enjoy a quiet life in the Lancashire village of Kelton Bridge, but when Martin Hayden, a seventeen-year-old schoolboy, is murdered, DCI Max Trentham, Jill's ex-colleague and ex-lover, wants her back at work.

As they hunt Martin's killer, they discover that nothing is as it seems. For a start, it seems likely that Martin, not the innocent child his parents claim, wasn't above a spot of blackmail. On top of that, Martin's father isn't the distraught parent one would expect, and his mother is determined to take her own secrets to the grave.

When the killer strikes again, Jill and Max find themselves in a desperate race against time...