As a television news correspondent, Alex Callahan has traveled to some
of the most dangerous corners of the globe, covering famine, plague, and
war. He's seen more than his share of blood and death, and knows what it
means to be afraid. But what he's never known is the terror that grabs
him when, on a tranquil summer afternoon, he ceases to be an observer of
the dark side and, to his shock, becomes enmeshed in it.
Separated from his wife, and struggling not to become a stranger to his
six-year-old twin sons, Alex is logging some all-too-rare quality time
with the boys when they vanish without a trace amid the hurly-burly of a
countryside Renaissance Fair.
Then the phone call comes. A chilling silence, slow, steady breathing,
and the familiar, plaintive voice of a child--"Daddy?"--complete the
nightmare and set in motion a juggernaut of frenzy and agony.
The longer the police search, exhausting leads without success, the
deeper Alex's certainty grows that time is running out. And when, at
last, telltale signs reveal a hidden pattern of bizarre and ghoulish
abductions, Alex vows to use his own relentless investigative skills to
rescue his children from the shadowy figure dubbed The Piper.
Whoever this elusive stranger is, the profile that slowly emerges--from
previous crimes involving twins, from the zealously secret world of
professional magicians, and from the eerie culture of voodoo - suggests
that The Piper is a predator unlike any other. A twisted soul hell-bent
on fulfilling an unspeakably dark dream. A fiend with a terrifying true
calling. What Alex Callahan is closing in on is a monster with a
mission.
