Rukhsana Mahmood is dead, found battered about the head with the ferocity of a great rage. But who would want to kill a kindly young woman whose job as a health visitor made her loved and respected? DI John Handford is assigned the case. It's particularly sensitive as the Asian community is still reeling from the murder case he headed the previous year. Now he's investigating another death that will rake up all the tension from the past, and cause a whole lot more. Along with DS Khalid Ali, who faces hostility and jibes of tokenism, Handford begins to probe possible motives for wanting Rukhsana dead. She made a mixed marriage and her husband's family makes no secret of their pleasure at her death. But is this a punishment killing? Or was pleasant, quiet Rukhsana Mahmood betraying more than one person...