Detective Sergeant Esther Penman is a mess. She drinks too much. She sleeps around. And her chief inspector is threatening to kick her out of CID and send her back to uniform because he doesn’t like her ‘attitude’. Luckily for Esther, if there’s one thing she’s good at, it’s solving cases…

When a woman is killed in one of Belfield’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, Esther quickly realises it is no straightforward homicide. The husband has an alibi, but he’s hiding something, and Esther is determined to find out what.

A few days later, a man is found hanging in nearby woodland, and Esther’s suspicions of a deeper conspiracy begin to grow. It isn’t long before Esther’s hunt for a killer sets her on the trail of forces far more sinister than she imagined…

And puts her on a collision course with the man they call the Art Merchant…