Gemma James is adjusting to professional and personal changes that include her eagerly sought promotion to the rank of inspector - and a future now intricately entwined with Duncan Kincaid. But her new responsibilities are put to the test when she is placed in charge of a particularly brutal homicide: The lovely young wife of a wealthy antiques dealer has been found murdered on fashionable Notting Hill.
Dawn Arrowood was six weeks pregnant. Her lover, Alex Dunn, a porcelain dealer in London's bustling Portobello Market, appears absolutely devastated by her death, but the main focus of Gemma's investigation is soon Karl Arrowood, who had the most powerful motive for killing his unfaithful wife.
But this case sets off warning bells for Duncan: It's far too similar to an unsolved murder in which an antiques dealer was killed in precisely the same way. And when the escalating violence claims yet another victim, he and Gemma find themselves at increasing odds with each other - as two separate investigations become linked in the most startling of ways.