by Dean Koontz
First published 2011
Twenty years ago, fourteen-year-old John Calvino watched serial killer Alton Turner Blackwood slaughter his parents and sisters before John killed the murderer in self-defense. Now Detective Calvino works homicide cases with cold logic and hard evidence. But when families across the country start dying in murders that mirror Blackwood's brutal methods exactly, Calvino knows his own wife and three children will become targets. The killer follows Blackwood's pattern down to every savage detail. Calvino must protect his family while confronting an impossible truth. His investigation forces him beyond the realm of facts and reason into something darker. The detective who built his career on rational thinking discovers that death might not end everything, that some killers refuse to stay buried. As the murders close in on his family, Calvino faces both a present danger and the return of his deepest nightmare.
Genres: suspense, mystery, horror, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: return-of-the-past, unreliable-narrator
Period: Twenty Years Ago
521 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam
Content warnings: murder, violence