The fifth book in Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon mystery opens with the "accidental" death in London of bestselling author Penny Varnavides, one of Lindsay's oldest friends. When police learn that the bizarre conditions of Penny's death match those described in the manuscript of her unfinished novel, they arrest Meredith Miller, the long-time lover Penny had recently parted from on bad ters.

Reluctantly lured across the Atlantic on the chance of helping Meredith, Lindsay (a crusty but lovable expatriate Brit) meets up with old friends and uses her journalistic expertise (and some old but impressive business cards from her days on a national newspaper) to dig up information. Who knew the contents of Penny's unfinished book? And who might have wanted her dead?

Dodging rude secretaries, obstructive literary agents, slippery publishers, and one determined baseball bat (should this have been a cricket bat?), Lindsay slowly eliminates possibilities until she is ready to confront the killer.