When an adolescent boy s body is found mutilated and artfully arranged on the top of a tomb, it takes no large leap for the police to recognize the work of a serial killer. This is his fourth victim but the first to be white. Hoping to avoid charges of institutionalized prejudice in the failure to pursue the earlier crimes to their conclusion, New Scotland Yard takes the case and hands it over to Acting Superintendent Thomas Lynley and his colleagues. The killer is a psychopath who does not intend to be stopped. Only a devastating tragedy within their ranks causes the police to fumble in their pursuit of him.