A cold case heats up as a British police detective investigates the murder of a union activist—while MI5 puts the pressure on . . .
DCI Alex Fleming has returned to work after convalescent leave to find that the Assistant Chief Constable wants him to review an old cold case. William Stroud, a union activist, was shot dead five years ago after a strike at the Atomic Weapons Establishment organised by union leader Bill Kauffman. No one had ever been arrested for the crime.
When Fleming later finds out that MI5 have an interest in the case and in what's going on at the AWE, he realises how deep he's going to have to dig. After speaking to the officer who originally investigated the case, he learns that another activist was the main suspect. But as the body count rises and Fleming uncovers an extramarital affair, he suspects the answers may lie in a very different place . . .