A Santero and Rein Thriller

Rookie cop Carrie Santero has always been fascinated by serial killers. As a teenager, she wrote a letter to Charles Manson in prison - and received a chilling reply. Then she came face to face with a child murderer in her small Pennsylvania town, an encounter that haunts her to this day. Now, as a detective in training, she finally has her chance to make a difference; to hunt down a psychopathic sadist who embodies the very nature of evil itself.

Before being promoted to detective, Carrie Santero was given a rare glimpse into the mind of a killer. Through her mentor, Jacob Rein - a seasoned manhunter whose gift for plumbing the depths of madness nearly drove him over the brink - she was able to help capture one of the most depraved serial killers in the country. Now, the discovery of a small human foot buried in the Pennsylvania woods will lead her to a decades-old cold case - and the darkest secrets of her mentor's youth.

Fifteen years ago, a deranged young man abducted a teenage girl in a parking lot. He chose her for her innocence. Punished her for her beauty. Dowsed her with gasoline and tried to purify her with fire. Detective Jacob Rein managed to stop the lunatic and lock him up for life. Now the girl who survived that horrible ordeal has been found dead, an apparent suicide. Near her body is a letter from "The Master" - a bloodchilling promise to finish what he started.