"Five years ago [DI Kate Simms] helped a colleague when she shouldn't have ... Professor Nick Fennimore is a failed genetics student, successful gambler, betting agent, crime scene officer, chemistry graduate, toxicology specialist, and one-time scientific advisor to the National Crime Faculty ... In Manchester, drug addicts are turning up dead and Simms' superior is only too pleased to hand the problem to her. Then a celebrity dies ... Another overdose victim shows up, but this time the woman has been systematically beaten and all identifying features removed. The evidence doesn't add up ... and the one person [Simms] can't afford to associate with is the one man who can help: Fennimore"--