Daniel Connell is a disgraced ex-City lawyer now scraping a living in Essex. When an old childhood friend visits him, asking for his help with a case of police brutality, Daniel wants nothing to do with it. But obligations are obligations, and he soon finds himself on the wrong end of police attention, and dragged into the shady business of a local gangster.

But there is far more at stake than he could ever have anticipated - including the mystery of what happened to his mother, who disappeared months after he was born. Daniel must keep ahead of his pursuers long enough to uncover the bloody mysteries of the past ? and the fate of another young woman, too innocent to protect herself in the midst of a dangerous game. Welcome to Essex.