The battered body of a young woman in party clothes lay on the rocky shore of Lake Michigan. Police detective Marti MacAlister had seen dozens of other violent deaths before she transferred from Chicago to suburban Lincoln Prairie. Now this broken doll of a girl reminds her how easily a child can slip away from a parent's grasp into deadly trouble.

As a widowed mother with a young son and a teenage daughter, Marti feels a sharp stab of fear about her own kids. But with this murder and two other cases distracting her--a homeless man frantic over a buddy's disappearance and a Halloween flasher out "trick or treating"--Marti misses the signs of danger at home. For while she looks for one killer, another has come from the past...sneaking into her house, watching her daughter, and waiting with the infinite patience of the truly deranged for the right time to strike.