Just outside the city's neon Strip, in the bleak wastelands of Nevada's desert, the Las Vegas Metro Police discover the mauled corpse of a young and beautiful showgirl. Even in a city known for its excesses - from Arab sheiks to casino billionaires - this crime is particularly shocking because of the animalistic destruction of the body. Called to the crime scene is Detective Sergeant Romulus Poe - a thirty-five-year-old Vegas native and a seasoned, fifteen-year veteran.

A loner with a love of justice, Poe immerses himself in the horrific case. Poe is particularly struck by dread similarities to a slaying by an anonymous monster dubbed the Bogeyman. Immediately, Poe forms an investigatory team consisting of the handsome detective Stephen Jensen, his colleague but no friend; Detective Patricia Deluca, a homicide newcomer; and forensic pathologist Rukmani Kalil, who is also Poe's part-time girlfriend.

From Native American mysticism and medieval folk legends to untold twentieth-century secrets, Poe must explore Vegas's sordid past and dark underbelly to solve a series of gruesome murders - and save a beautiful woman he once loved - before all of them are caught in a deadly dance of moon music.