Carlyle is attempting too much and achieving too little and he’s upsetting all the wrong people – this time it could be terminal…

Jake Haggar has been kidnapped by his father who is threatening to sell the boy to a paedophile ring. Carlyle is struggling to get him back. It’s not his case but it is his problem – it was his fault Jake was taken in the first place.

But Carlyle’s own caseload includes the murder of Agatha Mills. Her husband, Henry, has been arrested for murder but his explanation is so outlandish that Carlyle wonders if it may just be true. Agatha is the sister of William Pettigrew, a priest killed in Chile during the Fascist coup in 1973 and after 30 years of campaigning, Agatha was about to see his killer brought to justice. So a seemingly straightforward case of murder quickly escalates into a diplomatic incident that has Carlyle, once again, clashing with his bosses and their political masters…