"Two armed men enter the police station in tiny Heartsdale, Georgia, and open fire. When the shooting stops, an officer is dead, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is seriously wounded, and the survivors-including a class of grade-school children and medical examiner Sara Linton-are held hostage. In a tense standoff that could erupt at any moment into more bloodletting-with her ex-husband on the threshold of death-Sara must search for answers and an escape...

A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear.