They say you shouldn't meet trouble halfway, but Inspector Danny Quirke never has to worry about that. Trouble always finds him. When a house fire rocks his small town of Kildevil Cove, Danny's inquiries into the house's mysterious inhabitants prompt the dispatch of Inspecteur Blaise Pascal from Quebec. Pascal arrives in perpetual ill humor, but he's an expert on this particular family. If anyone can determine whether this is a missing persons case or something more sinister, it's Pascal. Pity he doesn't want to share. Danny's cop instincts say Pascal's secrets are the key to solving this case. But before he can untangle that mystery, a local fishing trawler hauls up a dead body, and a murder victim is found eviscerated on his bed, a grisly message painted on the wall in his own blood. Are these deaths related to the house fire? Who is the message for? And can Danny find the culprit before they carry out the last act of their sinister plan?