History of the Musical Box and of Mechanical Music

Book excerpt: Along a slow-moving river, he watches as her body drifts below the water's murky surface, forever altered. Before he disposes of each victim, he takes a trophy. It's a sign of his power, and a warning--to the one destined to suffer most of all... In Grizzly Falls, Montana, Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are struggling with a new commander and a department in the midst of upheaval. It's the worst possible time for a homicide. A body has been found, missing a finger. Alvarez believes the disfigurement means a murderer with a personal grudge, not a deranged madman with a brutal fetish. Pescoli can only hope she's right. But then a second body turns up, bearing the same mark... As the clues begin pointing toward a suspect, Pescoli's unease grows. Even with Alvarez barely holding it together and her own personal life in chaos, she senses there's more to this case than others believe. A killer has made his way to Grizzly Falls, ready to fulfill a vengeance years in the making. And Pescoli must find the target of his wrath--or die trying...