Part of Lucas Davenport, book 16
First published 2006
A young woman turns up dead on a Minneapolis riverbank. Her throat has been slashed. Her body bears marks of torture and sits arranged for maximum shock. Lucas Davenport of the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension studies the crime scene. He recognizes the work of someone driven by twisted brain chemistry. This killer operates beyond normal human rage or passion. Three weeks pass. A second body appears in a farmhouse six miles south of the city. This victim is male, but the condition matches exactly. The throat cut, the torture marks, the deliberate display. Davenport finds no connections between the two victims. Nothing suggests the murders will stop here. The detective takes a long breath and exhales slowly. This killer will challenge every skill Davenport possesses. The investigation will push him to his limits. But the alternative means more bodies, more families destroyed, more terror spreading through Minneapolis. Davenport must decode the killer's psychology before the violence escalates beyond anything the city has seen.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, detective-story
Setting: Minneapolis, Minnesota
481 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: graphic-violence, violence