Homicide detectives spend their working lives around murderers, but rarely are they related to one. Inspector Challis' wife is that exception.
She is serving a long term for an attempted murder because she tried to kill her husband: Hal Challis. It's given him new insights into the criminal mind, and also enormous pain. But he's moved on, dating a newspaper editor he's taken with and making friends.
Two crimes interrupt the peace though. A two-year-old girl has gone missing, and an unidentified man is fished out of the sea at Bushrangers Bay. A second murder cuts into his life. This time, it's a friend, a woman who ran an aerial photography service. Her work provides the clues linking the crimes.
