A psychological thriller on a serial killer who hunts homicide detectives. The hero of the tale is Denver newspaper reporter Jack McEnvoy whose brother, a detective, shoots himself. McEnvoy investigates police suicides in other cities and discovers a sinister pattern: sex killings, followed by the "suicide" of the detective on the case and a suicide note in the form of a poetic riddle. In this way McEvoy stumbles on the killer known to the FBI as...

The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something "real dead ... buried in your marsh." The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks it's a prank, but when a young woman's body turns up in L.A.'s Bird Marsh preserve no one's laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city's under siege to an insidious killer.