Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April nine feet under water police diverFlea Marleycloses her gloved fingers around a human hand. The fact that theres no body attached is disturbing enough. Yet more disturbing is the discovery a day later of the matching hand. Both have been recently amputated and the indications are that the victim was still alive when they were removed. DI Jack Cafferyhas been newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He and Flea soon establish that the hands belong to a boy who has recently disappeared. Their search for him - and for his abductor - lead them into the darkest recesses of Bristols underworld where drug addiction is rife where street-kids sell themselves for a hit and where an ancient evil lurks; an evil that feeds off the blood - and flesh - of others ...