Choice of Darkness is a tale of blighted love and mass murder based on the hunt for the biggest serial killer in nineteenth-century America.

Jad Adams tells the story of Henry Holmes from the point of view of the detective who tracked him down, burdened by a love betrayed.

Frank Geyer is a detective in Philadelphia who in 1894 is called to investigate the death of Ben Pitezel.He encounters Dr Henry Holmes who says he is acting for Pitezel's family to collect the insurance money. Holmes had been friends with Geyer in their home town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire and they have unfinished business over a woman.

Alerted by the insurance company, Geyer seeks Holmes in what becomes a journey to redeem Geyer's life as he discovers how his former friend left horror after horror in a killing programme across the United States. Set in the gilded age of American history, Choice of Darkness is a meticulously researched study of this late nineteenth century criminal, and the police methods used to bring him down.