When by-election fever grips the North of England town of Bradfield, Laura Ackroyd finds she knows the local scene far better than the national reporters who flock off the London train. Laura is assigned to cover the election campaign and also the police investigation into the discovery of an unidentified body on the moors, the students campaign to “out” various local dignitaries and hints of dirty dealings at the town hall.
She also comes across the new and enigmatic DCI Michael Thackeray who is feeling his way through the tangle of mysteries and indiscretions which surround Richard Thurston’s campaign to take the Bradfield seat. As the veneer is peeled away from each and every participant, violence touches the candidate and most of the other main players in the increasingly vicious struggle and even touches Laura herself. Could there, she wonders, be a common thread linking all these events, a thread which Michael Thackeray is barely aware of? The conclusion is as violent as it is unexpected when twisted loyalties are eventually untangled, leaving unexpected victims in its wake.
