He has a chance to undergo surgery,Rhyme and his assistant Amelia are drafted in by the local police department to use their forensic skills to help find two women kidnapped by a psychotic young man known locally as the Insect Boy. A cat and mouse game through the abandoned swamps of North Carolina is to have more devastating consequences than either Lincoln or Amelia can anticipate.

When criminalist Lincoln Rhyme travels to a world-famous spinal cord injuries center in North Carolina for some experimental surgery, he hopes that the operation will give him slightly more movement. He knows that it may kill him.

But before he has a chance to undergo surgery,Rhyme and his assistant Amelia are drafted in by the local police department to use their forensic skills to help find two women kidnapped by a psychotic young man known locally as the Insect Boy. A cat and mouse game through the abandoned swamps of North Carolina is to have more devastating consequences than either Lincoln or Amelia can anticipate.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46