LAPD police lieutenant Milo Sturgis has closed hundreds of murder cases. But that doesn't stop him from agonizing over the crimes that don't get solved - and the victims who go without justice. Victims like Katherine Hennepin, a young woman strangled and stabbed in her home. The lone suspect in her killing has a solid alibi that even Dr. Alex Delaware's expert insight can't shake. The only thing to do is move on to the next homicide. Ursula Corey, a successful, attractive divorcée, has been gunned down, execution-style, in a crime that smacks of simple, savage revenge. And this one comes with two logical suspects: the dead woman's business partner/ex-husband and her divorce lawyer/secret lover. But just as Alex and Milo think they're zeroing in on the killer, a bizarre new clue stirs up eerie echos of the unsolved Hennepin murder. And the discovery of yet another crime scene bearing the same taunting signature raises the specter of a serial killer on a mission, whose twisted method is exceeded only by his manipulative and cunning madness.