Foreign Office diplomat Peter Darwin is returning to England, back to his childhood home of Gloucestershire. But instead of a pleasant trip down memory lane, Peter finds himself coming to the aid of a veterinary surgeon whose operating theatre is rapidly turning into an abattoir. In fact a string of valuable racehorses have suffered unexplained deaths, and the police are baffled. When Darwin looks into the mystery he finds that his connections - and his memories - help him uncover criminal activities that stretch back all the way to his childhood. But the more Darwin uncovers, the closer he gets to a killer who just can't stop...

`I wondered if I was dying. I wasn't afraid to die, but such was the pain in my gut, I wished it would happen soon.' The night before the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket sees the great and the good of the horse-racing community gathered for a black-tie gala dinner at the Hay Net - the racing town's favourite Michelin-starred restaurant - founded by Max Moreton, something of a local celebrity. Spending the night retching in the throes of agony is the last thing Max expected of the evening.

When defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge's guilty verdict, he quietly hopes that a long and arduous custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason expect that he'll be seeing Trent again much sooner than he'd ever imagined. Setting aside his barrister's wig, Mason heads to Sandown to don his racing silks. An amateur jockey, his true passion is to be found in the saddle, on a thoroughbred, pounding the turf. But when a fellow rider isbrutally murdered - a pitchfork driven through his chest - the prime suspect is champion jockey Steve Mitchell and the evidence is overwhelming.

Just after learning that his stepfather is gravely ill, artist Al Kinloch, returning to his remote home in the Scottish Highlands, is attacked by four men. They ask one question - 'where is it?' - then leave him for dead. Baffled and hurt, Al visits his step-father and learns that millions of pounds are missing and a valuable race horse is under threat. Roughed up already, Al decides he has nothing to lose getting to the bottom of this.