A body is found, horrifically tortured and left outside a women's refuge. She is quickly identified as a resident, the victim of domestic abuse.
DS Pete Gayle's young son is recently dead, his traumatised daughter is going through hell and his station chief is out for his blood - or at least his career - when he is called to a murder scene on a residential street in Exeter.
But the obvious suspect was three hundred miles away, so who did this? And why? The attack was too personal, the scene too specific and too staged to be random so was this a murder for hire? Or is someone targeting the refuge?
Haven't these women been through enough?
Touched by the plight and the resilience of the shelter's residents, Pete must track down a vicious and sadistic killer before more can fall prey.