This is a police procedural crime novel based in present day Northern Ireland. It is a story of revenge and murder by a serial killer called Timothy Deeds. This man is intent on murdering the four main figures in authority of a juvenile care centre for young boys where they brutalised him when he was a child.

Detective Inspector Rasharkin, a troubled man in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, is the Senior Investigating Officer who tries to stop him. At the same time he is mentoring Caitlin O’Connor a young female Garda officer (the police force of the Irish Republic) seconded for a month to the PSNI who becomes his assistant in the investigation. Rasharkin’s personal life has descended into chaos when he learns his wife has left him for a woman.

Eventually Rasharkin learns that the serial killer is playing a chess game with the police, using the four move Scholar’s Mate as a pattern for killing his victims. In the past the child was forced to play a game of chess with his abusers, losing meaning abuse. Tables are turned when Deeds as an adult forces each of his abusers to play a final game with him. This time losing means death. The final chapters bring about a surprising end to the story.

Ecclesiastes 12:12
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.