Detective Inspector Franz Heineken, aka Pufferfish, is Tasmania’s long-time cop who loves to be loathed. Momentarily becalmed in the shallows of his beloved, bedevilled island home, Pufferfish investigates a low-level mysterious and clueless attack on respectable Hobart second-hand trader Ira Cone.

But while her injuries are not serious, her volunteer work for a mobile charity food kitchen invites his suspicious attention. More so when he’s attracted to a peculiar sleeping tramp: young, Jesus-faced, indescribably stinking and wrapped in $20,000 worth of sable coat. Not to mention the diamond ear studs and rings. So who is ‘Kingo’, who cannot — or will not — speak? And why the grim cicatrised swastika between his shoulderblades?

Pufferfish closes in on Ira’s attacker, while hunting deadly, dangerous, muted, mad, feral Kingo. Unhurried, canny, immune to shock (almost), Pufferfish is very good at what he does … But nothing is ever straightforward or easy in this business …