Part of Pendergast, book 4
First published 2004
FBI Special Agent Pendergast arrives in a remote Kansas town where someone has started murdering residents. The killings follow no clear pattern, leaving the community paralyzed with fear. Bodies appear amid the endless cornfields that surround the town, each death more brutal than the last. Pendergast must determine whether he faces a human predator driven by psychological compulsion or something far worse. The investigation forces him deep into the heart of rural America, where ancient secrets may have awakened a malevolent presence. As more victims fall, Pendergast races to identify the source of the violence before it consumes everyone in its path. The case challenges everything he knows about criminal behavior and forces him to confront the possibility that some evils cannot be explained by conventional methods.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, small-town-mystery
Setting: Kansas
Period: 21st-century
571 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: murder, violence