A mystery caller sends Leonid McGill to an uptown address ‘just to check a girl’s okay’. There’s no explanation, just a name - Angelique - a reward and the chilling knowledge that he’s working for Rinaldo Alphonse, the most feared man in New York.

What Leonid finds is a crime scene. A girl lies with her face blown off, her assassin felled by a knife. But the dead girl isn’t the one he was sent to find and her killer’s injuries don’t make sense. The next day Alphonse comes calling: Leonid must find Angelique before the assassin’s assassin tracks her down. Alphonse isn’t the only one who wants a bit of Leonid’s time - the NYPD, finding his appearance too convenient, think they can finally put away the thorn in their side.

McGill must put his street know-how and book of lethal contacts to the test, while haunted by the re-appearance of a face from his crooked past and his wife Katrina’s continued infidelities.