Young women are being raped, murdered, scrubbed clean and dumped in Sydney suburbs A psychopath becomes increasingly deadly as his fantasy world slowly becomes his reality A convicted serial killer is kidnapped while recovering from surgery Thomas Carlyle, criminal psychologist and an ex-priest struggles to live with memories of the evils he has encountered as a criminal profiler He is convinced he can't do it any more until this one case becomes deeply and terrifyingly personal Thomas once again traces pathways through an insane mind, as those around him become targets until he is forced to face a terrible truth about who he really is "The greatest barrier to discovering the truth is an absence of doubt"