Flying home from Florence, DS Kate Power of Birmingham CID engages in a pleasant but trivial conversation with the businessman sitting next to her. Two days later he's found hanging from a canal bridge - with Kate's card in his pocket the only means of identification.
It looks like a clear-cut case of suicide - but Kate isn't so sure. And, as her subsequent investigations prove, the cause of Alan Grafton's death - and its consequences - are more serious than she and her colleagues could ever have imagined.
Still regarded as a newcomer in the Birmingham police force, still battling against prejudice and intimidation among the ranks, still fighting to prove that she's got what it takes, Kate is determined to stick to her guns until she finally uncovers the shocking truth.
