Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz is lucky to be alive. Not many people
her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and
lived to tell about it. Her dad, New Orleans detective Rick Bentz, wants
Kristi to stay in New Orleans and out of danger. But if anything,
Kristi's experiences have made her even more fascinated by the mind of
the serial killer. She hasn't given up her dream of being a true-crime
writer - of exploring the darkest recesses of evil - and now she just
may get her chance. Four girls have disappeared at All Saints College in
less than two years. All four were "lost souls" - troubled, vulnerable
girls with no one to care about them, no one to come looking if they
disappeared. The police think they're runaways, but Kristi senses
there's something that links them, something terrifying. She decides to
enroll, following their same steps. All Saints has changed a lot since
Kristi was an undergraduate. The stodgy Catholic college has lured edgy
new professors to its campus and gained a reputation for
envelope-pushing, with classes like the very popular "The Influence of
Vampirism in Modern Culture and Literature," and elaborately staged
morality plays that feel more like the titillating entertainment of some
underground club than religious spectacles. And there are whispers of a
dark cult on campus whose members wear vials of blood around their necks
and meet in secret chambers - rituals to which only the elite have
access. To find the truth, Kristi will need to become part of the cult's
inner circle, to learn their secrets, and play the part of lost soul
without losing herself in the process. It's a dangerous path, and Kristi
is skating on its knife-thin edge. The deeper she goes, the more Kristi
begins to wonder if she is the hunter or the prey. She's certain she's
being watched and followed - studied, even - as yet another girl
disappears, and another. And when the bodies finally begin to surface -
in ways that bring fear to the campus and terror to the hearts of even
hardened cops like Detective Bentz and his partner Reuben Montoya -
Kristi realizes with chilling clarity that she has underestimated her
foe. She is playing a game with a killer more cunning and bloodthirsty
than anyone can imagine, one who has personally selected her for
membership in a cult of death from which there will be no escape.
