On a year's sabbatical from her teaching job, Sophie Rivers is enjoying a stint as a volunteer for the Big Brum Bookfest - a new literary festival promising to cast Hay and Edinburgh into the shade. But someone is determined to sabotage the Bookfest. First it's the phone calls and letters threatening the festival's authors; then the Director succumbs to a mysterious illness; then, suddenly in charge of the project, Sophie herself becomes the victim of a vicious and terrifyingly knowledgeable stalker. Sophie never could resist a mystery and it's not long before she's calling on old friend Superintendent Chris Groom to find out as much as she can about the case. But when the stalker turns murderer it's clear she's in way over her head...