Detective Inspector Rachel Sharpe becomes suspicious with the deaths of several men and women in their early thirties who attended the same high school in Newcastle. They all appear to be an accident or suicide. There is no evidence that points to them being murdered. Is it just a co-incidence? Before Rachel can look more closely at them, a murder takes precedent over her enquiries and DCI Frank Bailey shuts her investigation down.

When a book written by a bestselling author comes to Frank Bailey's attention that includes the murder of several victims who die in a very similar way, he asks Rachel Sharpe to look at the deaths again. The only problem is the book was written and published before their deaths occurred seven years earlier. Did a killer copy the author's methods? Or is there more to the deaths than meets the eye?