Emily Tempest: short, loud, sharp as a taipan's tooth. Last seen in the award-winning Diamond Dove, Emily has a new job: an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. A cop. Not quite what she had in mind when she returned to Central Australia. But for an Aboriginal woman in a pissant mining and meatworks town, the career options are limited. And there's a car attached. Her new boss, the dour Superintendent Cockburn, sees her role as making tea and rounding up the truants. But when one old friend is murdered out on the Gunshot Road and another one gets the blame, Emily leaps into the investigation feet first, mouth never far behind.