A compelling psychological thriller that probes the darkest compulsions of the human mind. Dr. Stanley Kolberg was not just murdered. His lifeless body was battered and broken almost beyond recognition, as though his unknown killer had been driven by a ferocious rage that had exploded madly out of control.
As far as the Seattle police are concerned, there is no shortage of suspects. A distinguished psychiatrist, Kolberg specialized in anger management and often treated violent offenders with severe psychiatric disorders. His client list is a virtual lineup of sociopaths, psychotics, and convicted murderers, any one of whom might have unleashed their homicidal fury on the doctor.
For Dr. Joel Ashman, who consults as a profiler for Seattle Homicide, the shocking crime strikes particularly close to home. Not only was the victim a fellow psychiatrist, but Kolberg was also his former partner and mentor--he was practically a second father to Joel, who soon finds himself the target of a faceless stalker as well.
Who killed Stanley Kolberg and why? The answers lie hidden in a lurid underworld of depraved sex and violence--and in the tortured past of one disturbed young woman.