The first in a new series featuring Charlie Woodends protege, DCI Monika Paniatowski - It will be no easy task to fill DCI Charlie Woodends shoes, the newly-promoted Monika Paniatowski tells herself, but, given a little time, she thinks she can grow into them. Yet, with the discovery of a severed hand, time is the one thing she does not have. When her colleagues prove untrustworthy, the urge to call Woodend for help becomes almost irresistible . . .