"Jonathan Selkirk make your will." Hours after opening this letter, high-powered solicitor Jonathan Selkirk is in hospital recovering from a suspected heart attack. That night, he vanishes from his private room. Has he discharged himself? Or been abducted? Briefly admitted to the same hospital after a road accident, Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy finds herself having to cope with not only a broken arm but also a murder investigation and the arrival of a senior officer from the Regional Crime Squad. Superintendent Karen Pugh thinks there is a contract killer at work but who, in the small town of Leek, could have hired him?
