In Belfast, Northern Ireland, memories of the city's troubled history haunt every street corner, but for one tortured soul, the incredible violence in his past is also his most cherished legacy.

Rea Carlisle—daughter of influential Stormont politician Graham Carlisle—has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew. It doesn't take her long to clear out the dead man's remaining possessions, but one of the upstairs rooms remains stubbornly locked. When Rea finally forces it open, she discovers a chair, a table, and a leather- bound book, its pages filled with a host of chilling mementos...locks of hair, fingernails: a catalog of victims.

Horrified, Rea wants to go straight to the police, but her father intervenes. Graham Carlisle has worked too hard to have his brother's twisted legacy ruin his promising political career. Thwarted by her father, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: disgraced police inspector Jack Lennon.

Meanwhile, Lennon finds himself the lead suspect in a murder investigation led by one of the force's toughest cops, DCI Serena Flanagan. His implication in the murder, coupled with the story Rea has brought to him, leaves Lennon more than slightly suspicious that the two are part of a grisly conspiracy.