Product Description

In this electrifying debut, the slaying of an old couple in small town America looks like one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear. When the two separate investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer's real identity remains dangerously out of reach ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45519 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Review
An elderly couple, notorious for their homophobia, are found shot to death and with crosses carved on their breasts in a small-town church. Meanwhile, in the city, a serial killer is acting out the murders in a computer game. The killings are at first treated quite separately, but as investigations continue, it starts to look as though there may be a connection. The protagonists of this novel are a group of software designers, friends since university days, and bonded in their determination to protect one of the group, formerly the target of an obsessive admirer who murdered those close to her. Grace lives in a state of readiness, believing that at some point, her stalker will reappear and a struggle to the death will commence. What she does not know is that the killer has been close at hand all the time. This is a debut novel, and the handling of two concurrent plots, rife with psychosexual undertones, is challenging for any writer. Nevertheless, the suspense and two sympathetic characters compensate for any slight lack of finesse in the handling of the novel's structure and themes. Well recommended by other thriller writers, and set to be expensively promoted, this is a bestseller in the making. (Kirkus UK)

Guardian
'A fast-paced, gripping read with thrills and devilish twists'

Harlen Coben
'Outrageously suspenseful...The thriller debut of the year'