A sheriff combs the Everglades for the charming sociopath who killed
his ex-wife in this Edgar Award-nominated mystery.
Years after their marriage collapses, Buck White splurges on Irene's
coffin. She was found floating in a cypress swamp behind a Seminole
village, her beauty marred by sadistic violence, a guitar string buried
so deep in her neck that it takes two autopsies to dig it out. Sheriff
White knows neither the time nor place of death, but the savaged corpse
tells him to look for a serial killer: white, under forty, antisocial,
and with a fondness for liquor. The man White is tracking turns out to
be a special kind of crazy. Uncommonly charismatic, he has the wit and
cunning to elude law enforcement while seducing new victims. More women
will die before White gets on his trail, but no one will hurt the
sheriff as badly as Irene.