Ex-copper and 'fixer' for the Catholic Church Jimmy Costello is sent to Spain to investigate when a senior cleric is accused of being part of ETA, the armed Basque separatist movement. Given his usual missions, he's not entirely surprised when he finds himself implicated in a murder as soon as he lands in Santander, and remains calm as the evidence seems to point to an old gangland contact who has set himself up as a crime writer – but do old dogs really learn new tricks?

Despite the ongoing attentions of the local police, Jimmy's still not shaken – even when the bodies start to mount up – until the trail leads him to some surprising remainders of his violent London past ...