Joe Parker is Manchester's most ingenious criminal defence lawyer. Sam Parker is Manchester's most tenacious homicide detective. Both bear the burden of the unsolved murder of their sister fifteen years earlier. And both have a stake in a new series of murders that has shaken their city to its core. Ronnie Bagley is awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend and baby. Two weeks before he's due in court he suddenly fires his defence team, claiming that there's only one lawyer he wants to defend him: Joe Parker. Despite his misgivings about taking on the case in such strange circumstances, Joe decides to represent Bagley. Little does he know that Bagley is smarter than anyone has given him credit for, and soon Joe will find himself pitched against his own brother, Sam, in a race to outwit the most terrifying serial killer the city has ever seen. It isn't long before Joe and Sam's shared past comes crashing into the present in a pulse-pounding race to find out who is NEXT TO DIE. . .