Are you scared?' Gretchen asks.She dabs his forehead with the cloth his cheek, the back of his neck, his collarbone, lie thinks he sees a flash of emotion in her eyes. Sympathy?Then it's gone. 'Whatever you think this is going to be like." she whispers. 'it's going to be worse.

When beautiful serial killer Gretchen Lowell captured her last victim - the man in charge of hunting her down - she quickly established who was really in control of the investigation.So why, after ten days of horrifying physical and mental torture, did she release Detective Archie Sheridan from the brink of death and hand herself in?

Two years on. Archie returns to lead the search for a new killer,whose recent attacks on teenage girls have left the city of Pnrtland reeling. Shadowed bv vulnerable voung reporter Susan Ward, Archie knows that only one person can help him climb into the mind of this psychopath. But can Archie finally manage to confront the demons of his past without being consumed by them?