A thrilling novel from the best-selling author of Run for Home and Bad Moon Rising.

He hates them, but he loves them too. Those gorgeous, cruel young girls. That's why he worships them from afar: sending flowers, following their every move, discovering their secrets. And that's why, when it all goes wrong, when they fall, inevitably, from the pedestal he's erected for them, he kills them, cutting out their hearts and leaving, in its place, a single, perfect white rose.

Everything is getting too close for comfort for Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt. A killer is stalking the streets of Houghton-le-Spring, targeting young women and killing them brutally, and without mercy. Selina, the daughter of Lorraine's partner, DS Luke Daniels, is a beautiful and willful sixteen-year-old with a dark history. Just as it seems she's finally getting back on her feet, she's attacked. Is Selina's past catching up with her? Or could it have been the White Rose Killer?

The closer the killer gets, the more elusive he becomes. Lorraine faces her toughest case yet as her resources are tested to the limit by a killer with no conscience and no remorse — just pitiless hatred for the girls who inspire desire within him.