Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed her husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot. Jane's enemies are determined to see her dead, or make her wish she was. They can't stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark and dreadful place where her long nightmare was born. -- Adapted from jacket.