'I know I am not the only one of my kind who walks this earth. Somewhere, there is another. And he waits for me . . .'
A year has passed since the capture of the Surgeon, serial killer Warren Hoyt, yet the memory of his brutal crimes continues to haunt Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli.
Now she faces a new killer, a hunter who preys on well-to-do couples, forcing the husbands to watch as their wives are sexually assaulted. The killer's final act is swift and pitiless: a single bullet to the husband's head. Then he leaves, taking the wives with him.
Rizzoli views the death scenes with a horrifying sense of familiarity. This new killer appears to be copying one obscure element from Warren Hoyt's crimes. Has Hoyt found an acolyte; an apprentice killer? Or, more frightening still, have the men actually made contact, and a bond formed between these two terrifying predators?
A new complication arises. The killer's DNA is sent to a national database, and federal investigators from Washington join the case, for reasons they refuse to share. Again and again, Rizzoli clashes with Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who begins to show up at every crime scene. He knows something about this killer, something that is so politically explosive, he cannot reveal it to her.
Then he case takes yet another frightening turn. While hospitalised for a sudden illness, Warren Hoyt makes a brilliant and bloody escape from custody. Suddenly there is not just one hunter on the loose, but two. And they are united, a pair of blood brothers who share grotesque appetites and a combined genius. They have joined to stalk the most challenging prey of all, the very woman who now hunts them.
