"In the days following the death of Pope John Paul II, 115 cardinals have to be called to the Vatican in order to take part in the Conclave to elect the new Pope. With Rome under siege to foreign press and hundreds of thousands of mourners, the last thing the Vatican needs is a serial killer on the loose." "Paola Dicanti is a psychological profiler who works with the Italian police. Despite all her qualifications, her experience of serial killers is as yet theoretical - that is, until she is called to the church of Santa Maria in the Vatican state. A cardinal has been found murdered, his eyes destroyed, his hands cut off. It seems that this is not the first victim." "Recovering from a bitter affair with her boss, Paola begins to build her profile using information from the scene of the crime, from the autopsy, and from forensic evidence. Hampered at every turn by the Vatican's desire to keep the murders secret, she finds an unexpected ally in Anthony Fowler, an American priest for whom she feels an unsettling attraction. But Fowler is no ordinary priest and he knows a lot more about the serial killer than Dicanti could ever have guessed."--Jacket.