When evil comes back, it brings death and destruction never seen before… John Withers is the Sheriff of the small cosmopolitan town of Bakerton and its neighbours, Copper Ridge and Thurlow Junction. Copper Ridge began as a lumber site, when the huge copper birch trees were felled to make canoes and roof trusses. Twenty years later, the railway authorities built a junction in the valley below the Ridge, believing that the great age of the birch was to come. They were wrong, and now the railway sidings have been derelict for forty years and Thurlow Junction exists only as a pleasant little satellite hamlet of Bakerton. Everyone agrees: nothing ever happens in this part of the world … Sheriff Withers and his deputy, Dawg Janowski, are in Thurlow, attending the funeral of one of their colleagues, when Withers is approached and asked to carry out a private investigation. As he is still convalescing after sustaining a bullet wound in his last case, and is therefore officially off-duty, he agrees to look into the matter. A famous footballer has gone missing. He grew up in Thurlow and joined professional side Altona City as a boy, before landing a dream transfer to top league side Melrose Nomads. But now he is back at Altona. And the question is: why? What has made this young man insist on giving up a lucrative opportunity to return to the inferior club, as well as taking a substantial pay cut? And, more to the point, why has he now disappeared? When Withers and Dawg start to look into it, they are immediately baffled. None of the case makes sense, unless there is something from the past which could hold the key. Withers has an idea… but is he right? And if not, then what is really going on? Then the body of a sports agent is discovered, leading to complications Withers had never dreamed possible. Now it is a race against time to save who he can, before the man-mountain they call Mr Sumo commits the ultimate kill of all… Withers himself.