No one in the sleepy little New England town of Norfield knew that serial killer, Luthor Carlsen, was on the bus that crashed on Route Ninety One - least of all, Suburbanite reporter Linda Halsey, who fell in love with him while covering the story. Carlsen murdered thirteen women and wrote about them while working as an investigative reporter for a daily newspaper. His escape from Crestview State Hospital's H-wing, for the criminally insane, stunned the police and hospital staff, who were sure he'd died from a heart attack. In fact, he'd orchestrated a brilliant escape while murdering morgue attendant, Thomas Hawthorne, and assumed his identity, leaving his body in a cheap wooden coffin meant for him.