"Against the sun-blasted, meltingly hot landscape of the Arizona desert this gripping tale of psychological suspense unfolds as Paul Pope, chief of police, conducts a multiple murder investigation." "The first body, found on the railroad tracks, is that of a young female, costumed in a sequined cowgirl outfit. The dead woman is cut in half and nearly decapitated. The cowgirl clothes belong to someone else - to a part-time college student, part-time cocktail waitress named Cindy Callison, who is now missing. Before long, other mutilated bodies start turning upbut still Cindy Callison cannot be found." "Pope's nephew Roy is an English professor at the local university. Cindy Callison was Roy's student, and he was the last one to see her alive the day she disappeared. Paul Pope enlists the aid of his nephew in the search for the murderer, but as the hunt for the killer intensifies and it becomes apparent that the psychopath is someone in their midst, is it possible that Roy could be a suspect?" "Everyone in this grisly story has suffered traumas in the past. And during the investigation these past terrors surface: Eileen, Roy's wife, must come to terms with a horrifying experience that threatens her marriage; Paul Pope is forever reliving the live burial of his young wife; and Esmeralda, Pope's housekeeper, lives a secret. But perhaps the character holding the greatest secret is the Arizona desert, among whose parched terrain and abandoned gold mines a psychotic murderer not only lurks, but sends out his eerie ham radio messages to an imaginary world. These intermittent signals punctuate the narrative and propel the reader into the heart of insanity." "Evil is omnipresent in this stark terrain, and we are slowly, inexorably drawn into the web of suspense, menace, and violence that Gerard so ably weaves. This is an action-packed thriller, a multilayered mystery, and an investigation into the ultimately unknowable nature of a murderer's mind."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved