Serial killer Alistair Ashcroft is back and more terrifying than ever. He sends a sinister warning to DS Marie Evans and breaks into DI Rowan Jackman's uneasy domestic bliss. Now everyone Jackman cares about is in danger. Yet for all Ashcroft's taunts, he is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, a seemingly routine break-in at the home of gun-club owner Kenneth Harcourt becomes complicated when the man long held responsible for killing Harcourt's young daughter is shot dead in a car park - by a sniper. A killer is on the loose in the quiet streets of Saltern-le-Fen, and he isn't going to stop. And the sniper, like Ashcroft, takes to taunting the police: they'll never catch him, they need to respect him, they shouldn't be sidetracked looking for their old adversary. Jackman and Evans find themselves in a lethal game of cat-and-mouse, but are they the cats or the mice?