From the publisher
In a psychiatric hospital just outside Boston, Trevor Lucas, a brilliant but psychopathic plastic surgeon on trial for a grisly serial murder, has taken over a locked unit for the criminally insane.

The murderous inmates are holding staff members hostage, and they will die unless Lucas gets what he wants -- a meeting with forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger. Clevenger and Lucas have a past -- they share a secret that, if revealed, would end Clevenger's career and, quite possibly, his freedom. It's the perfect, diabolical bargaining chip, and Lucas uses it, refusing to negotiate with anyone but Clevenger.

As an army of police, tanks, and helicopters mass outside the hospital, Clevenger enters the locked unit, and the stage is set: two extraordinary men, both doctors, enmeshed in deep conflict that threatens to erupt into mass murder.