Introducing a striking series character manipulative, tough, headstrong and often emotionally cold who is damaged by a past she can never escape from but which she won't face up to. Detective Constable Karen Sharpe is intrigued by Fiona Mitchell, drug addict and informant. When the novel opens she and her partner Phil Leach are with Fiona in a West Yorkshire pub. Karen is attracted to Phil and likes Fiona but her judgement is not to be trusted; it is April 8 and Karen is drunk. The date holds a special significance for her; one she tries to blot out. But even in her drink sodden brain, a secret buried for years is fighting its way out. When the call comes through the following morning that Phil and Fiona have been found dead, murdered, she is too hung over to take it all in. She hopes it is a professional hit connected to the two drug dealers they have been investigating, but fears that it is connected to a past she shares with no one.