In this twisty, magnetic thriller, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan finds herself enmeshed in a series of grisly animal killings that escalate into something far more sinister. Small creatures – a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel – have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. Then one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home, she receives a disturbing call: this find could be human. Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone’s pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty abhorrent, Tempe agrees to help apprehend the person responsible, and she acquires an equally outraged ally in semiretired homicide detective Erskine ‘Skinny’ Slidell. After consulting a forensic psychologist, they realise the escalating pattern of aggression could result in human victims. And then it happens: a woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the animal killings. When people Tempe cares about begin to go missing, it becomes clear she is being taunted, the target in a sick game that has her racing against a ticking clock to catch the killer before it’s too late...