Two men have been beaten to death in a Newcastle park. One is a mild-mannered librarian, the other a member of a gang of armed robbers from the 1970s.
It’s no mystery who killed them.  But Walter Oyston – ex-boxer turned violent wino – is also dead, his heart having given out before his liver.
Is it a simple case of mistaken identity? Or have the ghosts of Newcastle’s criminal underworld  returned seeking vengeance on one of their own?
Following hot on the heels of their last breathless investigation comes another baffling case for DCI Theo Vos and the team from the Bug House.
This time, to discover the motive for two apparently senseless present day murders, they must hunt for clues hidden deep in the past.
And for Vos, whose career as a detective spans the generations,  that means unearthing painful truths of his own.