Actor Richard Corrington is a rich, handsome and a household name -but is he sane? Journalist Joyce Carter is murdered in her Devon cottage, a few miles from Richard's country home and forensics implicate Richard in the killing. Also among the suspects are Joyce's jealous, druggy toyboy lover and Richard's own wife, the beautiful, icy Amanda, who suspects her husband of having an affair with Joyce. Devon policeman Todd Mallett believes that Joyce's murder is part of something much more sinister and complex than a crime passionel. There have been other deaths - the senseless killing of a young woman on a glorious Cornish beach, another in a grim London subway. . . And somewhere on the Exmoor hills a hawk hovers, mercilessly stalking its prey, ready to kill again. . . .