In a sleepy historical Iowa town, on the banks of the Mississippi River, tourist season is in full swing, and the strangest serial killer the world has ever known is roaming at will.
It begins with a mysterious house explosion, a severely burned man, and an unidentified female body. More victims follow, each killed under the oddest circumstances, each bearing an identical but unidentified wound, each attack accompanied by the most eerie, musical ticking. When the lead homicide investigator goes missing, Police Sergeant Erin Vanderjagt is forced into the fray and into a personal hell she never imagined.
Who or what could be behind the bizarre deaths? Why is her lover, firefighter/paramedic Ben Court, suddenly acting crazy? Why has her idyllic world suddenly fallen apart? And - as the murders continue - what can Erin do, where can she go, how can she fight the horror... When the Tik-Tik Sings?