1985; a killer stalks the streets of Belfast, where death is easier to arrange than crossing the street. Detective Inspector Cross's quarry might simply be someone who has made sectarian violence his vocation, except that this killer cuts across political and religious boundaries with viciousness. The investigation draws in a young policewoman and to unmask the killer she and Cross must enter a maze of conspiracy, paranoia and secrecy. At its centre lurks a violence beyond their worst imaginings - a violence from which there is no escape, a nightmare world without exit, where political and sexual terror form part of the same deadly trap. Then, as they uncover the motives and layered identity of the killer, the evil closes in...