Recently demoted for stepping out of line once too often, prickly inspector Tom Thorne is convinced that a spate of suicides among the elderly in South London is something more sinister. When his concerns are dismissed by former colleagues at the CID, and even by his patient girlfriend, Thorne can only trust himself and his best friend-gay pub-crawling pathologist Phil Hendricks-with his suspicions of murder. Thorne draws a chilling connection between the deaths and a controversial case three decades old. But by going solo with his investigation, he not only risks the lives of those closest to him, but also further endangers those being targeted by a deranged killer-a man with the power and cold-blooded motives to coerce his vulnerable victims toward a breathtaking end.