The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something "real dead ... buried in your marsh." The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks it's a prank, but when a young woman's body turns up in L.A.'s Bird Marsh preserve no one's laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city's under siege to an insidious killer.

Troy Turner and Rand Duchay were barely teenagers when they kidnapped and murdered a younger child. Troy, a remorseless sociopath, died violently behind bars. But the hulking, slow-witted Rand managed to survive his stretch. Now, at age twenty-one, he's emerged a haunted, rootless young man with a pressing need to talk once again with psychologist Alex Delaware. But the young killer comes to a brutal end, that conversation never takes place. Or has...

Psychologist Alex Delaware receives a mysterious book on his doorstep, a beautifully bound volume that contains archival-quality photographs of murder victims, arranged in sequence by an unseen but meticulous hand. This is the Murder Book, a tantalizing mystery, but a record of terrible, brutal death. When his old friend Detective Milo Sturgis realizes that he can identify one of the victims, the trail goes hot, but in the process, both Sturgis and...

A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a cold-blooded killer. As LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor desperately searches for the murderer, the vicious madman stalks closer to his prey. Only Petra can save Billy, but it will take all her cunning...