What would you do if you began to suspect that someone in your close circle of friends was not who he seemed to be, and that for a reason known only to him he had embarked on an insidious plan to destroy you and those you love most? This is the terrifying question facing two friends and potential lovers, college professor Dix Mallory and real estate salesperson Cecca Bellini, in the quiet Northern California town of Los Alegres. The reign of terror against them starts with a series of anonymous telephone calls, shortly after Dix's wife, Katy, is killed in a freak accident. Or did it start before the tragedy, with a secret affair between Katy and the unknown tormentor? Was her death in fact cold-blooded murder? Shock follows shock as the tormentor escalates his campaign in both subtle and overt ways. But it is not until a sudden act of violence, as brutal as it is unexpected, that Dix and Cecca realize just how montrous and far-reaching his scheme really is. And how many other lives besides their own are in jeopardy? With an Extreme Burning is a harrowing novel of ordinary people trapped in a web of extraordinary menace. In their struggles to extricate themselves, they must not only take desperate measures but come to terms with their own weaknesses and self-doubts. What happens to each of them as a result has implications that will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.