‘My name is Dirk Roe and for your information my brother was almost beaten to death last night.’ Challis glanced at Roe’s hands: they were well kept and unmarked. He shifted his gaze to the man’s face, which wore the sour look of someone who’d once been admired and was waiting for it to happen again.

Schoolies Week on the Peninsula. A week of teenage drinking, illicit drugs and sexual misbehaviour. A week when Detective Inspector Hal Challis could do without a major crime.

The brutal bashing of a well-connected school chaplain puts paid to that idea. Soon after, a local woman is beaten to death. And Challis is back doing what he does best. The hunt for a killer is on.