Private Investigator Martina Monroe has no room for grief. Nearly a year after she failed to prevent her husband’s death, a battered woman depends on her for safety. But when she arrives too late and finds the female dead, the tormented detective’s only solace is a deeper relationship with the bottle. Struggling with sobriety and doing her job, Martina still has to protect another client battling a stalker. And if she doesn’t get her act together soon, one more victim may pay the price for her mistakes.

That’s what I had to decide. I had it all. At least that’s what people told me. Beauty, brains, and a rich husband. I deserved it too. My fiancé had cheated on me with my best friend. But, I won in the end, or at least I thought I had. Until Christmas of 1999. My ex-fiancé, Danny, showed up at my parents’ house, wanting to talk to my father. Danny’s a police officer, and my father’s a retired officer. A six-year-old girl had disappeared without a trace, resembling a case my father had worked on years earlier.

A frozen street performer turned serial killer eludes the FBI and escapes to Paris—where he kills again, luring tourists into his trap—and FBI Special Agent Juliette Hart is dispatched across the world to hunt him down. Juliette’s brilliant mind and European upbringing make her the perfect agent for this case, but being back in Europe resurrects her dark past, and this killer is more diabolical than anyone imagined.

Detective Inspector Jacob Vance and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Brittany Shepherd, are called upon to prevent a series of murders across London. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has provoked a psychopath with her inaugural speech. Soon later, the commissioner receives a letter threatening a series of nine killings, culminating in "the big one", unless the police chief retracts her speech with a public apology. To disprove her statements, the killer adds colour and poetry to the murders, all committed in the name of the mysterious Lord Robert.

FBI Agent Tara Mills is young, brilliant and new to the force. With a promising career in front of her, she faces the ultimate test when she is assigned the case. It soon proves to be more challenging than she ever could have imagined – an impossible riddle that leaves even her seasoned partner stumped.