Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more.

A serial killer stalks women in rural Ohio. He is deranged but brilliant, known only by the grotesque nickname the media has given him - The Doll Parts Killer. The name is apt. He dismembers his victims and leaves them in garbage bags in public places. A residential neighborhood. Next to a roller rink. Behind a Burger King.

The investigation is a disaster. No physical evidence. Unreliable witnesses. To make matters worse, the FBI has lost contact with the star profiler working the case. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career.

When Darger travels to Ohio, she brings along demons of her own. Her last case ended in tragedy. The death of a 16 year old girl. Darger still has nightmares about the bloody scene, still has panic attacks when she remembers. The trauma shattered her core beliefs.

Now she faces a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again.

Will this case restore her faith? Or push her over the edge?

The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped.