In a Yorkshire Dales village everyone has a motive for murder--except the killer.

A retired judge is shot dead outside the Dog and Gun inn in the remote Yorkshire village of Niddersgill. There's a witness who saw everything, and the gunman's on the run; the case should be open-and-shut for DCI Jim Oldroyd. But the murderer had no motive for wanting Sandy Fraser dead and, what's more, no trace of him can be found.

As Oldroyd and his team cast the net wider, they discover that Fraser wasn't without enemies in Niddersgill. As the wealthy owner of a grouse moor, he'd clashed with farmers, debtors, hunt saboteurs and blackmailers. But none of them were at the scene of the murder. And when a local shopkeeper is gunned down in a second senseless attack, it's clear that these killings are anything but random.

Surrounded by the dramatic beauty of the Yorkshire Dales, Oldroyd faces a race against time to connect the crimes and find who's behind them. But with all the evidence sending him down dead ends, can he get one step ahead before someone else is killed?