Pascoe is off to visit his daughter with his ex and the stepfather in Florida, but troubled by a hurricane named Andy. In his absence, loyal sergeant Edgar Wield's hope to be appointed acting inspector is frustrated by Dalziel given precedence to less seasoned sergeant Mark Lock, whose mother nurse Fran was just buried, and secretly write to baffled Andy he's Mark's biological father, not unsuspecting uniformed sergeant Ted Lock who nears retirement. The vicious MO of the murder on solicitor David Brewer, tied on a chair, recalls the earlier murder on a private detective five years ago, who was hired by Bewer suspecting the affair between his wife and butcher Tom Piper, which Mark worked on but lead to no prosecution. The name of local GP Robert Silwood keep popping up, and by the time Pascoe returns, Mark has been taken off the case and murdered.
—KGF Vissers