Book Description
The new spell-binding, unputdownable thriller from the bestselling author of The Rosary Girls and The Skin Gods
Product Description
When the first body is found, mutilated and strangled on the riverbank, homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano suspect yet another random case of urban violence. Until it happens again. And again. One by one, women are lured to the old Schuylkill River, their violent and increasingly staged deaths the only clues to the killer's twisted imagination. All are wearing oddly old-fashioned dresses, holding a prop of some kind. And each one seems to have a story to tell, speaking of nightmares that are not just the stuff of fairy tales ...
Desperately, Byrne and Balzano try to uncover the fragile link between the murders, until they realise they are up against two different kinds of evil. A ruthless killer is preying upon the citizens of Philadelphia. And someone else is killing the suspects.
From the Publisher
From the Inside Flap
Darkness has fallen on the streets of Philadelphia, sparkling red and green lights and festively decorated windows shining thinly through the cold, wintry city. That same night, the strangled corpse of a woman in an oddly old-fashined dress is found on the banks of the Schuylkill River, her feet mutilated and torn. Homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano know that this Christmas won't be much of a holiday for them. There are no leads, no motive, and just when it begins to look like yet another case of random urban violence ... it happens again. Another young woman, dressed in vintage clothing, is found strangled on the bank of the river. This time the victim holds a bird in her lifeless grasp.
The second murder exposes a fragile link between the two and Byrne and Balzano begin to peel away the layers of the victims' lives, only to discover a twisted chain of events stretching back in time, to a series of even more sinister crimes.
Flash back six years, to 2001: A serial rapist turns up brutally murdered. Flash back further, to 1995: Two girls are followed into the forest and disappear.
As, piece by piece, a chilling legacy of malevolence and retribution is revealed, more bodies start surfacing - every single one of them connected to the five murders. Moving cautiously along the dark banks of the old Schuylkill River, towards what they think is the heart of the madness unleashed upon their city, Kevin and Jessica know they're fast running out of time.
Someone is preying upon the citizens of Philadelphia. And someone else is killing the suspects.
From the Back Cover
Praise for Richard Montanari
'A relentlessly suspenseful, soul-chilling thriller that hooks you instantly' Tess Gerritsen
'Readers of this terrifying page-turner are in the hands of a master storyteller. Be prepared to stay up all night' James Ellroy
'A specialist in serial killer tales . . . a wonderfully evocative writer' Publishers Weekly
'A no-holds-barred thriller that thrusts the reader into the black soul of the killer . . . those with a taste for Thomas Harris will look forward to the sure-to-follow sequel' Library Journal
