In a village in South West England, an elderly man is found dead in his home. The angle of his neck says he fell down the stairs. The stab wound on his body tells a different story.

In the weeks before his murder, Alistair Moreton changed. He usually kept himself to himself, but people swear there was someone in the house when they checked on him, that there was a reason he wouldn’t let them inside.

Moreton made people’s lives a misery, from his neighbours to his ex-pupils.

While DS George Cross’s list of suspects is long, every victim deserves justice. But in all of Alistair’s years, there was something important he never learned: If you go through life making enemies, don’t be surprised when they teach you a lesson.