By a freak chance John Kelly, once a reporter, always a maverick, becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding a series of disturbing deaths at a tough Dartmoor army training camp.
Several young men and women stationed at the bleakly remote Hangridge have died suddenly and tragically, mostly from gunshot wounds that have been self-inflicted. The army has a plausible explanation for each death individually, but when put together these explanations look very think indeed.
Kelly takes his concerns to his old friend Detective Superintendent Karen Meadows and together they attempt to break through the wall of secrecy which the army has erected. Their involvement in what they come to believe is a major conspiracy, coupled with upheaval and tragedy in their own personal lives, brings them closer together then ever before. But their past histories threaten to jeopardise any possibility of a real relationship between them and Karen buries herself in her work instead whilst Kelly pursues the truth at considerable risk to himself.
When powerful men in high places try to silence the ex-journalist in a shocking and unexpected manner it looks as though this will be the investigation which finally finishes John Kelly for good.