Gilly Clegg is a psychopathic killer and a career criminal, fresh out of prison after a 4-year term for drug dealing. He was caught in a drug sting and has only one aim. He wants the money back he invested in that drug operation. It is his money, stolen by a corrupt FBI agent and he will kill to get it. He starts the hunt for the undercover FBI agent that took him down, just to find the other drug dealing FBI agent who absconded with the money, his money. He starts his hunt in a brutal and deadly fashion, but Clegg doesn’t know any other way.
On the other side of the world, in rural New Zealand, in the sleepy little South Island country town of Palmerston, population 800, the local Anglican Minister is murdered in his church. Murdered on the Sunday, just after the doors were closed when he had finished saying goodbye to his flock after the morning service. He is found dead in the middle aisle with a bullet hole in the back of his head and despite the parishioners standing around outside talking, enjoying the local weekly news catch-up, nobody saw or heard anything. The local Police are unable to discover the who, the what or the why, despite the dead body. The case is flagged THB. The Too Hard Basket.
For some reason, his death raises flags at the American Embassy in Wellingotn, New Zealand, and then at the Department of State in Washington. An FBI agent, Harry Kjelberg, is asked to travel to New Zealand to get an overview of the Police investigation. He arrives and discovers the local Police are stymied, they have no clues, but his investigation reveals the killing showed an in-depth knowledge of the workings of the church on a Sunday. The killing was precisely organized and meticulously carried out. It could only have been a professional hit.
Harry reports back to Washington and the Department of State now wants him to investigate the murder. They release to him secret files that show the Minister was once the FBI leader of a very successful undercover FBI drug sting operation. It was an operation that involved foreign countries and was politically sensitive. And it now appears the Department of State has a very serious leak, a leak that could allow vindictive criminals to find and attack those that put them in jail. Harry and his new partner, Leanne Judge, begin with the arduous task of searching through old case files to track down the killer, first in searching through the old drug sting files in Washington; then traveling to New Zealand, trying to find the killer and how a breach of the Department of State’s security occurred. But with being together every day, first investigating the files back in America, then traveling to New Zealand, they are becoming attracted to each other, but they both know the job must come first.
Behind them, back in America, Gilly Clegg discovers the FBI undercover agent he wants is in New Zealand. He knows he has the money, his money, and he then murders an innocent person, just for his passport. He needs to get to New Zealand. He is on an unstoppable mission and knows of no other way. But he is in for a real surprise when he gets to New Zealand. His psychopathic dreams of getting the money and killing the FBI agent are shattered.
Harry and Leanne begin to crack the case, they are staggered by what they find, nothing is what it seems, but their searching and investigation now put them on an inevitable collision course with the killer, Gilly Clegg. They both want the same thing, but there can only be one winner!