"Dear Violet, I am about to die." Thus begins a series of letters to noted Palm Beach astrologist Violet Day, self-written epitaphs from elderly women later found brutally murdered.

As the letters and murders make headlines, Violet's daughter Lorraine Day contacts her old friend, former cop Ken Blackburn. As a detective on the Dallas force, Blackburn developed an uncanny instinct for tracking down serial killers by predicting when they would strike again -- until that meeting in an alley with one deranged man who had eluded him for months, a meeting that proved fatal to the killer and forced Blackburn's suspension from the force.

So convinced are Lorraine and Ken that they are dealing with a man who fits the profile of a serial killer, Ken announces on a local talk show that he knows the killer's identity. And then they wait, hoping against hope that the killer falters and exposes himself before he kills again - because this time his target is the Day family itself.

With a climax that will leave readers white-knuckled, C. Terry Cline Jr. once again proves himself a master of psychological suspense.