Terrified by her goth-associated daughter's disappearance and the signs of a deadly struggle in their home, a widow implores Lucas Davenport to use his connections to local authorities to expedite the investigation, which subsequently reveals the work of a serial killer.

Weather Karkinnen, surgeon, wife of an investigator named Lucas Davenport, unwittingly witnesses the robbery of the hospital pharmacy where she works. With the death of a pharmacy worker on their hands, the three thieves set out to find out who Weather is, and eliminate the only possible witness ....

A house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for Minneapolis-the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they've been there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long. In 1985, Davenport was a young cop with a reputation for recklessness, and the girls' disappearance was a big deal. His bosses ultimately declared the case closed, but he never agreed with that. Now that he has a chance to investigate it all over again,...

A savage psychopath is playing cat and mouse with Lucas Davenport. But both killer and detective find themselves at odds with a female investigator who has intensely personal reasons for catching the killer herself-and fast.

At 1:15 a.m, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he's waking up on the floor of a moving car, lying on a plastic sheet, his body wet with blood. When the car stops, a voice says, "Hey, I think he's breathing, " and another voice says, "Yeah? Give me the bat." And that's the last thing he ever knows. Lucas Davenport is investigating another case when the trail leads to the man's disappearance, then--very troublingly--to...

The night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky. He' picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, an abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private, and quiet. The only problem was something smelled bad -- like, really bad. He mentioned it to a county deputy he knew, and when the cop took a look, he found a body stuffed down a cistern. And then another,...

Lucas Davenport's old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up and taken Lucas with her, creating for him a special troubleshooting job for the cases that are too complicated for others to handle--cases like when two people, a white woman and a black man, are found hanging naked from a tree in the woods of northern Minnesota.

Back in 1985, two girls disappeared, and fledgling cop Lucas Davenport couldn't get over it, even when his boss declared the case closed. Now a house has been torn down, the bodies of two girls wrapped in plastic have been found, and Davenport is back on the case.

"A wealthy socialite has been murdered. Now the killer must tie up a few loose ends. One is the witness. The other is Lucas Davenport--and of all the criminals Davenport has hunted, none has been as efficient or as ferociously intelligent as the woman who's hunting him ..."--Page 4 of cover.

The "maddog" murderer who is terrorizing the Twin Cities is two things: insane and extremely intelligent. He kills for the pleasure of it and thoroughly enjoys placing elaborate obstacles to keep police befuddled. Each clever move he makes is another point of pride. But when the brilliant Lieutenant Lucas Davenport--a dedicated cop and a serial killer's worst nightmare--is brought in to take up the investigation, the maddog suddenly has an adversary...