Where do people go when they leave your side? You might think of them occasionally, remember words spoken under the cover of friendship, but once lost, once they leave you in the darkness, all that remains is a whispered memory slowly fading in time.

The island of Malta and the unnamed detective returns, still haunted by the death of his friend, the havoc caused by the sinister drug smuggler, his own fall from grace and the slow rebuilding and reform of his life. Into that life falls a man to whom time has also not been kind, his existence in turmoil when he makes a connection with the past that someone would rather he had forgotten. Accused of murder, the man's only hope is the detective in a case that has roots in the USA, England and France, and for which the citizens of Malta could pay the ultimate price.