An alcoholic former private investigator; his missing niece; a police force unable to find her; and a horrifying race against time...

Mick 'Brew' Axbrewder has plenty to think about. A once capable private investigator, he is now an alcoholic after having lost his license following the accidental shooting of a police officer - his own brother.

When not drinking, Brew helps out Ginny Fistoulari, a tough, capable P.I. who he used to work with and with whom he's always shared a connection. But Brew and Ginny have an arrangement that she will never drag him out of a bar - so when she does just that, Brew knows it must be something serious. And it is. Brew's thirteen-year-old niece - his dead brother's daughter - has gone missing. The police are doing nothing and suspect she is a runaway. Until Brew's investigation uncovers a link with several other girls who all went missing, sent a letter home, then turned up dead, full of heroin. Desperately fighting the latest drinking binge and determined to stay off the bottle, Brew needs to find his niece before it is too late...