Resort to Murder

Early one morning in Brighton, Harriet Penny is puttering around the burned-out West Pier while her husband, Sam, fishes. To her horror, she witnesses a man dumping a girl"s body into the water, before becoming the killer"s next victim herself. When Sam comes to her rescue, he is attacked but escapes—only to later be accused of killing his wife, leaving his son, Joshua, to try to clear his name.

Joshua is dismayed when his only witness, Tracy, skips town, but soon after he sees a girl who looks just like her: Tracy"s identical twin, Adrienne. Anna Lipinski"s inquest returns a verdict of death by misadventure, but Sam"s solicitor, Lucy, is skeptical. A local fish merchant named McCrea wants a map he left on Sam"s boat, but what is its significance? The tattooed man gives Joshua a warning.

Bleeding and battered, Joshua heads to London looking for Tracy and convinces her to return. But back in Brighton, Tracy senses she"s being followed, and her fears may be justified. Right when Joshua thinks things can"t get any worse, Sam is found guilty of Harriet"s murder. The suspects are still plentiful, and the killers aren"t done killing.

Joshua and local surfer Neville Adams follow a suspect they believe to be the tattooed man to a convention of perverseness. But they may have pushed their luck too far, as McCrea decides it"s time to put an end to their interference. Joshua acquires a tape showing how Anna met her death, and when he, Neville, and Lucy visit Kepler"s tattoo parlor, they get more than they bargained for.

Slowly, one by one, the suspects are being dispensed with. Joshua learns the last piece of the puzzle and works out the identity of the tattooed man, but not before Lucy is taken prisoner. And in the dead of night, on the derelict West Pier, the mystery comes full circle for one final, deadly confrontation between Joshua and the man who killed his mother.