Wycliffe and his team are called to Bodmin Moor where a resurgence in corpses suggests that the so-called 'Beast of Bodmin Moor', a black panther which escaped from a zoo, and has a reputation for mauling livestock to death, has been active in slaying locals. Wycliffe, however, takes the view that the so-called beast is a convenient cover for a murderer with genuine motives and his theory is put to the test when Doug Kersey ventures onto the moor on his own and fails to come back.
—don @ minifie-1