Following the fall of Singapore in 1942, a group of SOE operatives landed at a secluded jetty below the garrison on a mission to retrieve a codebook that would ultimately see the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific. No one could know of the event, except the eight men who participated. Yet someone was determined to track down and kill every one of those men known as Carter’s Boys.

This riveting mystery begins in 1982, when Inspector Jack Hammond investigates a bizarre murder. A man walking his dog early in the morning stumbles on the body of a naked man crucified to the balance beam of a canal lock. Hammond’s first thought is to identify the man. Hope of a promotion for solving the case is soon shattered when the SCI blocks his progress: his victim is the fourth in a serial enquiry, and the man in charge, Superintendent Simon Stone is none other than an old rival from Hammond’s Police Academy days.

They cast their differences aside and embark on an investigation to unravel the exploits of eight army specialists, and soon discover the death of one man on the Singapore mission and the unrelenting vengeance of another seeking retribution.