Another spell-binding, unputdownable thriller by the author of 'The Rosary Girls' and 'The Skin Gods'.
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, and 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.
