From the bestselling author of The Bone Collector and Devil's Teardrop comes a spine-chilling new thriller that pits renowned criminalist Lincoln Rhyme against the ultimate opponent -- Amelia Sachs, his own brilliant protégé. A quadriplegic since a beam crushed his spinal cord years ago; Rhyme is desperate to improve his condition and goes to the University of North Carolina Medical Center for high-risk experimental surgery. In a twenty-four hour period, the sleepy Southern outpost of Tanner's Corner has seen a local teen murdered and two young women abducted. And Ryhme and Sachs are the best chance to find the girls alive. The prime suspect is a teenaged truant known as the Insect Boy, so nicknamed for his disturbing obsession with bugs. Rhyme agrees to find the boy while awaiting his operation. Rhyme's unsurpassed analytical skills and stellar forensic experience, combined with Sachs's exceptional detective legwork, soon snare the perp. But Sachs disagrees with Rhyme's crime analysis and so ensues a battle of wits and forensics between Rhyme and Sachs, his best friend and soul mate.