Roger Standing CBE, education adviser to the Prime Minister, and friend of the Chief Constable, is dead. Was it a mugging gone wrong or will the killer strike again? Why has MI5 ransacked his apartment, and set out to disrupt the investigation? And why are the widow and her son taking the news so calmly? Under pressure to get results fast, against the backdrop of the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Tom Caton and his team set out to find the answers.This is the second in the DCI Tom Caton series, and sequel to The Cleansing.