Detective Jack is called out to a body on the South Bank. The victim's hands and feet are bound, her skin badly bruised, her lips crudely sewn shut.
Inside the dead woman's mouth is the severed head of a rat.
This is the second body in two days.
The following night, a third body is discovered in a derelict brewery. The same bruising, the mouth sewn shut, a rat's head. This time it's a young man - and he's been dead at least a week.
With no witnesses and no clues to who the victims are, Jack's investigation is going nowhere.
Then he gets a call from journalist Jonathan Spearing. There's no love lost between the two men - but now Jonathan needs Jack's help. Katie Spearing is missing. She's been gone for two days. And Jonathan just received a text:
We have your wife.
Jack uncovers a connection between Katie Spearing and the three broken bodies. Now he's in a desperate race against time.