The bloody murder of her mother when she was a teenager made Lydia Strong into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. Now thirty years old, she is a reclusive bestselling true crime writer and investigative consultant whose intuitions never lie. The latest case to capture her attention is the disappearance of three adults, each the kind of loner whose sudden absence isn't missed - they have no family, few friends. The Santa Fe police don't see a patern, just three people who left their empty lives behind. But when another woman turns up missing, her apartament streaked with blood, even the police have to admit that something is wrong in their usually quiet town. Lydia and P. I. Jeffrey Mark, the ex-FBI agent who solved her mother's murder, begin a relentless investigation. BUt it is only when the killer ups the ante and goes after Lydia herself that, just like fifteen years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her mother's killer, the real hunt begins...