By-election fever has gripped the constituency of Bradfield, and the national media circus has descended on the town - or so it seems to Laura Ackroyd, the reporter from the local newspaper who knows the town and its politics a great deal better than the self-styled experts hot off the train from London. Laura Ackroyd is not only assigned to cover Richard Thurston and his campaign, but is also expected to follow up other news: such as the police investigation into the discovery of an unidentified body on the moors; the student campaign to 'out' various public figures; and the hints of some dirty dealings in the corridors of the town hall. As Laura peels away the veneer of each story, she discovers a tangle of old and new indiscretions, emotional blackmail and a disturbing amount of violence, and when the latter is turned against herself, she becomes aware that there is a common thread to all these matters which leads to the main players taking a murderous road to Westminster. In an intriguing mystery, which is as much whydunnit as whodunnit, the spotlight of publicity turns out to be a curtain-raiser on a scandal which proves physically and politically fatal to the villain and victim."