DI Andrew Hicks thinks he knows all about murder. For Hicks however horrific the act the reasons behind killing are ultimately all too explicable. So when a woman is found bludgeoned to death he suspects a crime of passion & attention focuses on her possessive ex-husb&. But when a second body is found similarly beaten Hicks is forced to think again about his suspect: the second victim is a homeless man with no links to the other woman. When more murders take place in quick succession Hicks realises he is dealing with a type of killer he has never faced before one who fits nowhere within his logic. Fear spreads as the police search for patterns & reasons where none appear to exist. Then the letters begin to arrive... As the death toll rises the threat gets closer to home. To survive Hicks must face not only a killer obsessed with randomness & chaos but also the secret in his own past. If he is to stop the killings he must confront the truth about himself & the fact that some murders begin in much darker places than he ever imagined.