The dark heart of a brilliant and ruthless psychopath. A celebrated but haunted detective. A determined young reporter hunting for justice—and the big story.

Karl Jackson is a particularly vengeful sociopath with his unique way of "problem-solving". DCI Tex Deacon suffers from the trauma of his beloved wife's death and finds it immensely difficult to come to terms with it. As a detective chief inspector specializing in murder and killer profiling, Tex has a relentless workload from his base on the edges of the mountains of the Lake District. Tex is under pressure from his superiors to take a step back to grieve properly. It’s clear that Susan’s death has ripped out part of his soul. There is no doubt that Tex is suffering, but this DCI is a driven man. Tex’s welfare is the responsibility of his boss, Chief Constable Barbara Bracewell, and she and Tex go back a very long way.

However, Bracewell must do what is right for Tex and the Cumbrian police force. Despite falling into a mental abyss, Tex’s instincts for the hunt never leave him. A hyper-intelligent and devious murderer appears in his crosshairs—the self-styled "Genius Killer". So what will Tex do? What can he get away with doing with the chief constable monitoring his every move?

And then there’s Debbie Pilkington, a tenacious and hugely ambitious cub reporter at the local paper, The Rimpton Chronicle. Debbie has big stories and a big future in her own sights.

A young journalist, a craggy and vastly experienced detective, and one of the most dangerous serial killers Britain has even seen. Their lives were about to intertwine. The chase to stop a cunning killer begins. Tex is a master at breaking down the thinking processes of those he hunts, but with Tex enduring his own psychological meltdown, can he penetrate the mind of this supremely malevolent psychopath?