Ex-DCI Henry Ward is woken in the middle of the night by a phone call. A distressed Mrs Thomson asks him to come and arrest her son.
Slightly annoyed, Henry reluctantly gets in his car and drives to the neighbouring Yorkshire village to see what’s going on.
Elderly and confused, Mrs Thomson claims that her son has killed someone. And it certainly looks like the young man is guilty of something when he attacks Henry and flees the scene. That, and the carrier bag of body parts in the basement.
With the Yorkshire police overstretched, and DI Barnes injured, part of the investigative work is delegated to the retired cop.
Yet when more bodies turn up, Henry realizes he’s been handed a very meaty case indeed.