With her colleague Dougie Doolan’s health rapidly failing, former firearms officer Sergeant Jessica Raker takes on his hunt for local crook Rory Walton. Not only is Rory the suspected arsonist behind a house fire that claims the life of a young mother, but he and his brother are also burgeoning rivals to the Ribble Valley’s crime supremo, Mags Horsefield.

As Jess strives to bring Rory to justice, she is drawn into a deadly web of deceit and corruption. But there’s another case Dougie also wants Jess to solve . . . Is she ready to confront a terrifying night from her own past twenty years ago to help a dying colleague?