"Homicide detective Harry Picard has seen a lot of violent deaths... but never like this. Three bodies -- blond, female, strangely emaciated -- have been found in the Potomac River with their throats brutally slashed. Each victim was last seen in the company of a huge, hulking man dressed in black. Picard's investigation catapults him into a roiling morass of passion, sexual intrigue, violence, and primordial fear... as he faces an enemy as powerful, and as horrifying, as mankind's oldest superstitions!"--Back cover.