Charlie Bronski, US Air Force security expert turned successful cookery writer, now lives the quiet life with his wife beside the sea in Denmark. So why would anyone plant a bomb under his car?

Recognising it as a professional job, Charlie asks for help from the people who set him up in his new life. They want a favour in return: for him to kill a middle-aged man, a trainee priest who caused them some problems – surely an easy task for someone with Charlie's military training.

But that man is ex-copper, ex-criminal, Jimmy Costello, a man with powerful friends – and powerful enemies. Will Charlie's past catch up with him before he catches up with Jimmy – and will Jimmy make it through alive?

The third in James Green's critically acclaimed series featuring his hardboiled former London detective.