A manhunt for the missing daughter of a wealthy tech billionaire becomes something altogether different when the young woman's body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Kew Gardens, Queens. but her head nowhere to be found. Soon it becomes clear there are at least two killers on the loose - one responsible for the young woman's death, another responsible for the mutilation. A pair of killers requires a team of equally talented investigators. Luckily, both Vincent D'Agosta and Special Agent Pendergast are back in town. D'Agosta hopes that this latest case will distract Pendergast from Constance Green's decision to leave New York for Tibet after the events of THE OBSIDIAN CHAMBER - and provide Pendergast the opportunity to work a case back on his home turf for the first time in years. But neither is prepared to face a team of killers as diabolical as this. It will take all of Pendergast and D'Agosta's intelligence and strength simply to match wits with their latest adversaries - let alone stay alive.