Rukhsana Mahmood is dead, found battered about the head with the ferocity of a great rage. But who would want to kill a kindly young woman whose job as a health visitor made her loved and respected? Detective Inspector John Handford is assigned the case. It's particularly sensitive as the Asian community is still reeling from the murder case he headed the previous year: he got the right man but at the cost of enormous racial divisions. Now he's investigating another death that will rake up all the tension from the past, and cause a whole lot more... Along with Detective Sergeant Khalid Ali, who faces hostility and jibes of tokenism, DI Handford begins to probe possible motives for wanting Rukhsana dead. She made a mixed marriage and her husband Amajit's family makes no secret of their pleasure at her death. But is this a punishment killing? Or was pleasant, quiet Rukhsana Mahmood betraying more than one person? The line between love and hate is very thin...