An ex-cop from Philly investigates the deaths of elderly women in a poor Florida community in this "gritty, vivid, and suspenseful" thriller (Harlan Coben).

Two years ago Ellie Byron was the only witness to the brutal murder of a young woman. Charles Penn, a hard-eyed man with a history of violence, was convicted of the crime. Now he's escaped--and another woman is dead.

Ellie fears she may be next and turns to the only person she trusts: attorney Joe Gable. Joe would give his life to protect Ellie, but neither of them knows just how deadly an enemy they face--or how close he is.

Then

The first corpse was found hooded, bound, and naked, kneeling ona bare mattress in a seedy hotel room. This was no ordinary murder but rather the work of a killer driven by something special, somethingspectacular. The fact that the dead man was a convicted rapist recently released from prison only increases the bizarre nature of the gruesome crime ... and the police's reluctance to apprehend the perpetrator. It's the body count that troubles Detective