From Yorkshire to Thornton Lacey is only a morning's drive, but for Peter Pascoe it's a journey into the past, a chance to kick back. Big Chill-style, with his closest friends from college. On arrival, though, he finds not a warm welcome but a grisly triple-murder, with one of his oldest mates on tap as the chief suspect. Still something of a newbie on the police force. Pascoe is a bit out of his depth and he is most certainly out of his jurisdiction, but the local cops aren't much interested in Pascoe's windy hunches about his friends' complex relationships; the way they see it, they've got their man. It's all a misery for Pascoe until the (reluctant) Dalziel and the (increasingly important) Ellie turn up to add their new pence---and, just as critically, to make it clear that this trio will be well worth watching.