Detective William H. Ryan leads the detective squad that is placed on the front lines to solve high visibility multiple murders. Murders that involve the excessive use of phlebotomy, the practice of opening one's veins to draw out the blood, and truculent and sexual torture. Their investigation and search intertwine and draw members of Ryan's family, organized crime, and the love of his life into the fray. The killer is smart, rich, and immutable in his quest to satisfy his unquenchable desire to kill and enjoy the pain and suffering he inflicts. Detective William H. Ryan is drawn, pulled, pushed and driven through levels of emotion that he never believed existed. His skills, abilities, and multiple avenues of information gathering are stretched to their limits.
The involvement, and the unknown inter-workings, of organized crime interwoven with the hard-working Detective Division of a big city police force, offer some level of understanding of the complexities of finding the guilty. They all are striving to reach this one goal, with different conclusions in mind, and in their efforts offer some insight into the complex worlds that one must pass through to attain this goal.
The investigation of all that confronts Detective Ryan takes one through many strange twists and turns and visits many dark places. Places that only excessive emotion can create, and/or cause to develop, places that are sometimes better left unvisited, investigated or disturbed.
