DI Liam McLaughlin and DS Nancy D'Arcy are seasoned pros, but even their skills are stretched when a battered body turns up in an alley across from the hair salon. Declan Hoagett was a seemingly harmless indigent who spent his days hanging out on the street corner. He rarely asked for handouts but did occasionally burst into song. Nobody would kill him for that, would they?

More bewildering, why does he seem to have been killed three different ways? Are they looking for three perps? It's up to McLaughlin, D'Arcy and those from Derry's Major Investigation Team to solve their most heartless homicide yet.