October, 1995. Adrian Brown's second year studying at Leeds University is a blur of throbbing bass line and neon-lit nights out. However, a shocking encounter with a pale, older man he met in a basement club has the power to sober him up.

Sheila Hargreaves, who has grown fond of Adrian following their brush with the Lollipop Man a year ago, has a book coming out about the murders and is busy with a new TV show, Yorkshire Crimetime. Busy doesn't quite cover it though when she has to pick up the pieces for her erratic co-presenter Tony Tranter. And then Tony goes missing and doesn't turn up hungover but stabbed to death in the shadows of a railway arch.

His death seems to be linked to a recent number of sometimes deadly attacks on men. Moving from shadowy corners of the city to the glare of the TV studio lights, Sheila and Adrian find themselves on the path of another killer.