To the crack snatcher team at London's Military & Civilian Combined Forces HQ, President Keating's new-fangled, Use-a-Thief-to-Snatch-a-Thief scheme, is a political mistake, doomed to fail. Likewise, seventeen year old new recruit, Skye Forrester, a repeat offender fresh out of juvie, as just another street thief. To Lieutenant Hunter, her designated puppy-walker, she's a pain in the backside. He's enough on his plate: winter 2089 is gearing up to be a shocker. Already overcrowded, the city is at flash-point with the migration of northerners, escaping the mini ice-age gripping the country north of Leicestershire, pouring in. And people are dying. Twenty nine unexplained deaths around the poorer areas of Hammersmith and White City: no visual cause; toxicology reports negative; forensics zilch. But Skye is determined to prove her worth. Tough, smart and sassy, she's a survivor where quick wits and nimble fingers have kept her and young brother, Alexie, alive for the last six years. Working alone, she uncovers two cold cases where the previous investigator met a gruesome death. That's when the threatening text messages start, her brother's abducted in the park, and when Skye's babysitter and two small boys are found dead, face down in their porridge, Skye begins to wonder who, if anyone, she can trust. it will take all her dubious skills to uncover the perpetrator - knowing that he or she will kill anyone who gets in their way.