It's the week before Christmas and lawyer Tam Buchanan's hopes for a relaxing break are dashed when his cousin Mark, a GP, corners him with a desperate plea for help. Four-year-old Robin Tarrant has been kidnapped, apparently by his father - a seriously unbalanced drug addict and the ex-husband of Hazel, one of Mark's patients. In the face of a threat to kill Robin if the police are informed, Hazel's hands are tied and Mark's only option is to get Tam and his sleuthing partner, Fizz, on the case.
Fizz soon realises that there's more to Robin's disappearance than meets the eye. The trail leads to some of Hazel's colleagues who have private agendas and double lives; and finally, inescapably, to one perpetrator - a killer whose immunity is guaranteed by the kidnapped child.
There seems to be no way that Fizz and Tam can see justice done without putting Robin at risk unless Fizz - resourceful, intuitive and often daringly foolhardy - can find one. But this time it's not only Fizz who is walking on dangerously thin ice...
