A dark, haunting story told through a deceptively simple narrative which peels back like an onion, revealing new layers of depth and meaning. A community is shocked and horrified by a series of disappearances. Three young girls, kidnapped and later found dead. A serial killer. Panic and paranoia spread through the community until a local mother makes a shocking discover about her son, home from his first year of college that sets the whole tale on its head. Her reaction, told unflinchingly through an epistolary framing device; a letter to her sister, brings up images of a traumatic childhood and illustrates well the philosophy of "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster". It also touches on the complex concept of nature vs nurture; are negative behavioral traits hereditary, or learned? It further poses the question; if it is in the blood, can it skip a generation? Though even if it seems to, is it really always there, lurking, suppressed, but waiting to come out in the right circumstances? ( )