Denver Post crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide-detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how: he starts work on an investigative report about police suicides.

Death is reporter Jack McEvoy’s beat: his calling, his obsession. But this time, death brings McEvoy the story he never wanted to write — and the mystery he desperately needs to solve. A serial killer of unprecedented savagery and cunning is at large. His targets: homicide cops, each haunted by a murder case he couldn’t crack. The killer’s calling card: a quotation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His latest victim is McEvoy’s own brother. And his last… may be McEvoy himself.