The sleepy town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is jolted into panic when Sara Linton, pediatrician and medical examiner, finds Sibyl Adams, a young college professor, dead in the local diner. As well as being viciously raped, Sibyl has been cut: two deep knife wounds form a lethal cross over her stomach. But it's only once Sara starts to perform the postmortem that the full extent of the killer's brutality starts to become clear. Police chief Jeffrey Tolliver - Sara's ex-husband - is in charge of the investigation, and when a second victim is found, crucified, only a few days later, he has to face the fact that Sibyl's murder wasn't a one-off personal attack. What he's dealing with is a seasoned sexual predator. A serial killer. But what neither Sara or Jeffrey could possibly predict is the depths this killer will sink to, the perversions of his twisted mind, or the extent to which his terrifying bloodlust will change their lives forever.