This novel "masterfully plays with the serial killer genre, walking a line between convention and invention and delving into the psychology of both killer and detective" (Publishers Weekly).

For more than eight years, a serial killer has been stalking the country, visiting towns with biblical names and leaving pairs of victims behind--one female and one male, their bodies broken and twisted to create the same gruesome scene over and over again.

In rural Nazareth, Texas, a Native American man suspected of shoplifting shoots and kills the local sheriff, then takes off running. Found in the trunk of the shoplifter's abandoned car? Two decaying bodies that match the serial killer's chosen prey. Seeking vengeance for the death of the lawman, Deputy Sheriff Jim Doe goes AWOL, embarking on a cross-country manhunt with the FBI following close behind.

From town to town, Doe finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of myth and mayhem, as a storm builds from the menacing clouds of both his--and the killer's--tragic pasts . . .

"Jones's writing betrays a huge intelligence, but he embraces the genre's conventions without sending them up or dumbing them down." --Texas Monthly

"It does what crime drama is supposed to do: scare the bejesus out of the reader. Eerie and engrossing, the novel is the sort of thing you have to shake out of your system when you've finished." --San Antonio Express-News