When the body of a man, with his brains blown out, is found in a Cotswold wood it looks like suicide. But looks can be deceptive and it doesn't take long for the police to identify that there's more to the case than meets the eye.

People's stories don't add up and when Superintendent Ian Carter and Inspector Jess Campbell start probing it becomes clear that the dead man had ruffled more than a few feathers in this close-knit community. His stepsister had been bailing him out of his financial troubles - much against her husband's wishes - but, with his money worries still mounting, the victim had become a desperate man... As Jess and Ian dig deeper and deeper into the case, a cover-up is exposed and bitter resentment rises to the surface to reveal a killer.