New York is shaken by a string of brutal murders marked by the same calling card. The press claims the killer is a moralist, delivering some message to society. A whole team of detectives is brought in, led by Lieutenant Vincent d’Agosto, with the participation of FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast. The investigation tries—unsuccessfully—to find a connection between the victims, but they are so far apart that it’s hard to imagine a single motive for the killings. The truth is, all these people were “incredibly rich” and “scandalously depraved.” And each of them had his head cut off…
“I have never encountered a case that resisted analysis like this,” Pendergast claims. Could it be that for the first time he’s faced an opponent whose intellectual superiority is undeniable?..