A mutilated body is found lying on the ground in Chicago, a dead hand pointing down Adams Street; also know as Route 66, a road of many names. And now of many deaths. A silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down, that road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more-all brought together by word that children’s grave sites...

Carol O'Connell's last novel, Dead Famous, made multiple best-of-year lists and won critical acclaim nationwide. "O'Connell brings a hard edge of greatness to the crime thriller," wrote the San Jose Mercury News. "A tough and brilliant action-, wit-, and surprise-packed novel." But never has Mallory faced as many surprises as in the case before her now. It seems cut-and-dried at first: a burglar has been caught in the act and killed by an ice pick-wielding...

"The nun was dead. Her body lay on the lawn outside Gracie Mansion, the home of New York City's mayor, and it wasn't alone. There were four of them altogether. They'd been killed at different times, in different places, and dumped there. There should have been five -- but the boy was missing. Jonah Quill, blind since birth, sat in a car driven by a killer and wondered where they were going. Though he was blind, Jonah saw more than most people did....

"The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect -- except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. Poor child, people thought. Then they found the body in the tree. For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months' lost time, the girl is a kindred spirit -- one that will lead her to a story of extraordinary...