Friday rush hour. Auckland City. A lone shooter fires across a packed street and kills a man. Detective Sergeant Sean Devereaux is assigned the case. He's not complaining. His Friday nights are seldom better spent.
But the inquiry is not straightforward. Witness accounts are conflicting. The dead man appears to be an unintended victim, with the true target unknown. It's a homicide that leaves police with no initial suspects, and no apparent motive.
It's the least of Devereaux's worries. His current case load includes an investigation into the deaths of the wife and daughter of a wealthy finance company director names Ian Carson. Carson is claiming a murder-suicide scenario, however Devereaux is unsure. His examination soon reveals the situation is far more complex than anticipated, casting real doubt upon the division of innocence and guilt.
Devereaux's former police colleague John Hale is in no position to assist. The chance witnessing of an abduction in an inner city bar leads Hale on his own pursuit of darkness.
This is moral corruption and violence viewed through the wary lens of two troubled but decent men. It is a story of the hunt for truth from those that pursue self-gain by any means.