On the twentieth anniversary of the murder of young Mattie Shadwell a cryptic phone call to the Mike Wickham radio show set into motion an unsanctioned investigation of the two decades old homicide. Wickham’s friend and Newport Police homicide detective Steve Carpenter heard the call awakening within him a long latent belief that the man now serving time was in fact innocent.
The story begins in the Vietnamese coastal resort city of Vung Tau in 1971 with the brutal and senseless murders of three young Vietnamese nurses. The local Vietnamese police are ill-equipped to solve the crimes so they enlist the help of a former Australian homicide detective and current Australian Army MP who involves US Army CID warrant officer Mike Wickham in the investigation.