In the very heart of the fertile Californian south, in the Orange County, evil has settled - bloody, cruel, senseless, crushing the lives of entire families, not sparing either the elderly or children. Former policeman and now journalist Russ Monroe discovers terrible traces of another brutal murder, similar to the other acts of the maniac and differing only in that this time his victim is Russ's former lover. But who is behind these murders? Why don't the police take any measures to find the criminal? How did it happen that the journalist himself becomes one of the suspects? The answers to these questions will have to be found by Russ himself, and as soon as possible, because death follows on his heels...American writer T. Jefferson Parker has his own “handwriting” in modern adventure and detective literature in the USA, the plots he creates are distinguished by their memorable originality, and the visuals go far beyond the traditional thriller.