As a teenager, Jonathan Winston Shelley got involved in drugs and then was convicted of the savage rape and murder of Mary Alice Finney, who attended the same high school in Decatur, Georgia. Paroled at age 35, he has a job at a car wash, barely making enough money for groceries and the rent for a shabby apartment. All he wants to do is learn how to live like a normal human being again. But will fate allow him a second chance?

Meanwhile, Detective Michael Ormewood reluctantly joins forces with Will Trent, an agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, to solve the rape and murder of a prostitute named Aleesha Monroe. This case has a disturbing connection to recent attacks on two teenage girls: the victim's tongue has been bitten off. But the girls were left alive, and they were much younger than Aleesha. Is this just a bizarre coincidence or has a sexual predator become a killer? Ormewood is almost relieved to have a tough case to distract him from his problems at home; for Trent, it's a new encounter with on-again off-again girlfriend, Angie Polaski, a tough vice cop.

All four people will be drawn together in unexpected ways, living in a world where no one is quite who they seem to be and where there are no heroes, only survivors.

This story is not for the squeamish. The language is rough and details of the murders, as well as Shelley's experiences in prison, are graphic, but I found that I could not put this book down. Ms. Slaughter draws readers into the messy lives of these people while building the suspense to a nail-biting level. The characters are complex, with some surprising secrets, and there's not a wasted scene in the plot. I was sometimes horrified, sometimes saddened, but always fascinated by this terrific read.