The inaugural winner of the Minotaur Books/MWA First Crime Novel Competition is the taut historical tale of Detective Simon Ziele, a man who lost his fiancee in a tragic accident and thereafter flees New York City to escape the memories of her death. But months into his tenure, he catches the worst homicide of his career: a young woman brutally murdered in her own bedroom in the middle of the afternoon. His investigating quickly leads him to Columbia University criminologist Alistair Sinclair and one of his patients. But what could lead this Michael Fromley, with his history of violent behavior, to target such a proper young lady? Is Michael really behind the murder or is someone mimicking him? This is what Ziele must discover in this story of a haunted man who must catch a killer while on the run from his own demons.
