With suspenseful intensity, this engrossing novel unfolds a story of criminal pathology that introduces the talent of Herb Chapman, a new master of the genre. With two parallel narrations -- one from Isaac Drum, a serial killer who routinely poisons his victims with nonlethal doses of strychnine to torture them with orgasm-like convulsions before he ends their lives; the other from John Keenan, the FBI profiler who feverishly pursues, and captures, the monstrous Drum -- Chapman's tautly crafted tale offers a rare view into both the mind of the criminal and the heart of the hunter.It is eight years after Drum's capture, and only weeks before his date with the executioner, that he smuggles a letter out of prison for the widow of a police detective whom Drum had murdered. In it, Drum promises that if his execution goes forward, the woman's son will be abducted and killed. As the clock ticks toward Drum's last hours, Keenan must learn if the threat to the child is real or just so much bluster from a sick killer unwilling to leave this world without inflicting more pain.

Ingeniously plotted and written with red-hot force, this riveting debut novel challenges Keenan's wits with the terrifying possibility of an unknown killer controlled by a deviant puppeteer. The crashing climax will leave you breathless.