Detective Inspector Temple’s first day with the Major Crime Unit — and the last case he should be mixed up in.

A double shooting. An unreliable witness. A vengeful family.

It’s elderly Vera Drake out walking her Jack Russell terrier who finds them. Two young men, in a car in the woods, their bodies slumped in the front seat as if sleeping.

DI Temple is first on the scene. Each victim has a single gunshot wound to the head. One of them is still alive — just.

The pair are quickly identified as Liam and Aaron Fortune, members of a local organized crime family. Temple’s had dealings with them before. It didn’t end well.

It’s a difficult case. There’s no public sympathy. The victims were nasty pieces of work. And the family are seeking their own rough justice — without the help of the police.

Then a suspect a local man in possession of an illegal firearm. Evidence puts him at the scene of the crime. The team reckon they’ve got their killer. Temple’s not convinced. He’s in a race against time to uncover the truth before the violence escalates.

At the same time, a figure from Temple’s past emerges. The man he’s been hunting for almost his entire life. The man who killed his mother.