Forensics expert Laughton Rees tracks an unusually clever killer while trying to overcome her own dark family history in this twisty new psychological thriller by the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy.

When she was fifteen years old, Laughton Rees witnessed the brutal murder of her mother by a masked killer—and barely escape with her own life. In the aftermath, she cut off all contact with her father, a police commissioner at the time, whom she blamed for failing to prevent the murder, and locked her past away for good… or so she thought.

Now a successful forensics professor, Laughton’s focused on her daughter and her work—but the past isn’t done with her. When Laughton’s book about criminal investigation is found at the scene of a violent murder, the Met police officer in charge of the case asks for her help. The crime scene has some disturbingly personal elements for Laughton, and she can’t shake the feeling that someone is sending her a message. After all these years, has the monster who murdered her mother come back for her?

Laughton is no longer the terrified teenager who fled the masked killer back then, but she’ll have to face her history head on—including the father she hasn’t spoken to in years—in order to take down the psychopath from her nightmares… and keep him from destroying her family once again.