When twelve-year-old Ciaran Devine confessed to killing his foster carer it sent shock waves through the nation. He said his older brother Thomas had tried to stop him, but the killing rage had burned too brightly. Seven years later, Ciaran’s release will set a new and even more deadly chain of events in motion. DCI Serena Flanagan, then an ambitious Detective Sergeant, took the boy’s confession after days and weeks spent earning his trust. He hasn't forgotten the kindness she showed him – in fact, she hasn’t left his thoughts in all the years he’s been locked away. Probation officer Paula Cunningham, reluctantly tasked with helping Ciaran re-enter society, suspects there was more to this case than the police or the prosecutors uncovered. Soon she wonders if Ciaran really committed the murder at all. His confession saved his brother Thomas from a lengthier sentence, and Cunningham sees the unnatural hold Thomas has over Ciaran. When she brings her concerns to DCI Flanagan, the years of lies begin to unravel, leading to a truth stranger than anyone could have imagined.

When DCI Serena Flanagan is asked to sign off the suicide of a severely disabled local businessman, she finds herself envying the grieving widow's comfortable life and devoted marriage, until the widow's close relationship with the local rector starts to sound an alarm. But with a clean crime scene and no evidence to back her up, have Serena's instincts led her down the wrong path? With her husband struggling to deal with the aftermath of an attack that nearly cost him his life, and her young children anxious and unhappy, Serena's determination to unlock the mystery of what happened in that house may cost her her job - and her family.