After midnight on a moonlit beach six policemen led by a top detective execute four criminals who have perpetrated the most heinous rape, mutilation and murder of a young woman. The police are unaware that there is a witness to the executions. The action that follows is set against dubious tactical, ethical and sometimes criminal choices faced by the central characters. The reader is left with a stark image of moral ambiguity as the police struggle to maintain courageous and precarious control of the crime that engulfs them, and the work of 'plain dealing' cops comes under scrutiny. The third book in The Ryder Quartet takes the reader on an emotional and action-packed journey through the choices made by police in their day-to-day confrontation with rampant and brutal crime in contemporary South Africa.