Short List

Having less than six months to live, a terminally ill writer embarks on a coast to coast road trip. Seven names are on his list: the ones who had stolen from him in various ways and would pay for their transgressions. His latest manuscript had been rejected by every literary agent he'd sent it to, but its research has not been in vain. Less than 50% of homicides are solved. The odds are in his favor. Two veteran detectives, Houston's Bill Healy and Barstow's Kevin Walsh, have a mandatory two weeks to solve their similar homicides. If not solved in that time-frame, their respective department chiefs will invite the FBI to intervene. With no pertinent clues, fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scenes, they depend on hunches and luck in order to track down the extremely intelligent killer, who they refer to as "DSB." His first victims were in Texas and California, but the body-count continued on a national scale. All horribly mutilated, a sheet of cardboard is fastened around their necks, a cryptic message written on it. There is only one exit on Richard Calder's highway to either Hell or Heaven. Being a serial killer is more fun than writing about them. It's not how you die, but what you die for.