Some pictures are not so pretty... Detective Sergeant Esther Penman is a bit of a mess. She drinks too much. She sleeps around. She has trouble following orders. But it's her tenacity that's about to get her into the biggest trouble of all... When a woman is killed in one of Belfield's wealthiest neighbourhoods, Esther quickly realises it's no straightforward homicide. The husband has an alibi, but he's hiding something, and Esther is determined to find out what. A few days later a man is found hanging in nearby woodland, and her suspicions of a deeper conspiracy begin to grow. It isn't long before Esther's discoveries set her on the trail of forces far more sinister than she imagined... And put her on a collision course with the man they call the Art Merchant...