The victims are all young and beautiful—the best and brightest. That's why they have to die. That's why they have to be added to a twisted killer's private collection until perfection can be reached. But perfection is so hard to attain. . .

FBI Agent M.K. Shaughnessy's gut tells her that the recent deaths at Chesapeake Bay College are far from accidents. She suspects they're the work of a serial slayer whose grisly work has only just begun. But a mere hunch won't be enough to convince her stubborn new partner, veteran agent Adam Thomas. What they need is solid evidence—the kind that will only turn up with the next dead body.

Now, as M.K. immerses herself in the murders, matching wits with a cold-blooded psychopath, she senses there's something familiar about the pattern, some crucial connection she's overlooked because she's just too close to see it. And that may cost her. For the killer's gruesomely macabre project is growing more shocking by the day, and the collection requires a finishing touch. . .a trophy more precious than anything that has come before...