Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is a hard-working police officer who has given his life to the job. Plagued by the disappearance of his beloved wife Sandy years ago, he finds himself unable to let go of the past and his own ghosts.

With two seemingly unconnected deaths on their hands, Grace and Branson find themselves tested to the limit when it becomes apparent both incidents may be the work of a twisted serial killer who is using the South Coast as a hunting ground.

Months on from his last investigation, and with Grace's team still reeling from the fallout, Roy must hurry to prove that a wealthy Brighton businessman has brutally murdered his wife in an impossible new case.

A sinister inquiry into skeletal remains found in a forgotten Brighton storm drain takes Grace down a labyrinthine trail through the past, but it's not only on the professional front that he's chasing ghosts.