"The definition of an owl had always pleased him: a night
bird of prey...sharp talons and soft plumage which permits
noiseless flight...applied figuratively to a person of
nocturnal habits. 'I am The Owl,' he would whisper to
himself after he had selected his prey, 'and nighttime is
my time.'"
Jean Sheridan, a college dean and prominent historian,
sets out to her hometown to attend the twenty-year reunion
of Stonecroft Academy alumni, where she is to be honored
along with six other members of her class. There is
something uneasy in the air: one woman in the group about
to be feted, Alison Kendall, a beautiful, high-powered
Hollywood agent, drowned in her pool during an early-
morning swim. Alison is the fifth woman in the class whose
life has come to a sudden, mysterious end.
Adding to Jean's sense of unease is a taunting, anonymous
fax she received, referring to her daughter -- a child she
had given up for adoption twenty years ago.
At the award dinner, Jean is introduced to Sam Deegan, a
detective obsessed by the unsolved murder of a young woman
who may hold the key to the identity of the Stonecroft
killer. Jean does not suspect that among the distinguished
people she is greeting is The Owl, a murderer nearing the
countdown on his mission of vengeance against the
Stonecroft women who had mocked and humiliated him, with
Jean as his final victim.
