Psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis investigate the aunt of a former patient, after she confesses to a crime shortly before she dies.

Forensic psychologist-turned-sleuth Alex Delaware searches for a cold-blooded psychotic responsible for the brutal murders of a painter, a ballet dancer, a blues musician, a punk rock singer, and a concert pianist.

The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something real dead - buried in your marsh. The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks it's a prank, but when a young woman's body turns up in L.A.'s Bird Marsh preserve no one's laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city's under siege to an insidious killer.

"Well-used to elevated emotions, psychologist Alex Delaware shrugs off a joking death threat from beautiful Beverly Hills physician Constance Sykes, whose attempt to secure legal custody of her baby niece is thwarted by Alex's forthright report to the court. Alex plays down the threat until LAPD's Milo Sturgis rushes to his side with the shocking word on the street that a hit's been taken out on him. But while Alex may be in grave danger, it won't...

Psychologist Alex Delaware is stunned when Rand Duchay, a patient whom he has been treating since his release from prison, asks for a meeting to confide a dangerous secret to him, only to turn up dead before their arranged rendezvous.

"Been a while since I had me a nice little whodunit," homicide detective Milo Sturgis tells Alex Delaware. But there's definitely nothing nice about the brutal tableau behind the yellow crime-scene tape. On a lonely lover's lane in the hills of Los Angeles, a young couple lies murdered in a car. Each bears a single gunshot wound to the head. The female victim has also been impaled by a metal spike. And that savage stroke of psychopathic fury...

"LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis is a master detective. He has a near-perfect solve rate and he's written his own rule book. Some of those successes--the toughest ones--have involved his best friend, the brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But Milo doesn't call Alex in unless cases are different. This murder warrants an immediate call. Milo's independence has been compromised as never before, as the department pressures him to cater to the...

"Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis must uncover the connection between a brutally murdered psychologist and a victim they're unable to identify in this electrifying thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense. Two burly movers are heading back into Los Angeles from the dusty wasteland of Ojai when they hit a man-a naked man who appears out of nowhere. Master detective Milo Sturgis is called to the scene and senses immediately...

"Psychologist sleuth Alex Delaware is surprised to get the call when well-known TV actress Zelda Chase turns up half-naked, half-mad in the LA's rural Westside. He has little connection to the starlet, save a psychiatric evaluation he performed on her adopted daughter several years ago, a child who has since vanished without a trace and whom Zelda refuses to talk about. When the actress turns up dead a few weeks later without a scratch on her, Delaware...