Twelve-year-old Damien 'Spike' Baker is a young voyeur who loves to climb up trees, houses and walls . . . and look in people's windows. But when he climbs up some rampant ivy on a large mansion and peers through one of its windows, he makes a deadly mistake. It seems that Damien has looked in one window too many . . . What did he see?

Detective Chief Inspector James Carrick of Bath CID is dealing with a raid on a jeweller's shop, and soon has a broken leg and the discovery of Damien's body on a building site near the River Avon to contend with. Fortunately his old colleague, Patrick Gillard, now retired from the National Crime Agency, offers to assist with the investigation. Can Patrick and his wife and working partner, Ingrid Langley, catch a criminal heavyweight intent on leaving a trail of death and destruction in the city?