### Product Description When a little girl finds a severed head buried in sand on a beach in Whitley, the locals are sent into a tailspin. Little do they know it''s only the first of series of grisly murders that will sully their normally idyllic resort town.After the body of local greens activist Rachel Macarthur is discovered minus her head and hands, the local police call on Melbourne profiler, Detective Rita Van Hassel, to help track down the killer.What Rita finds on arriving in Whitley are not the tranquil tropical waters and magical hinterland rainforest of the tourist ads for northern Queensland, but a seething hotbed of intrigue and malignant passion, where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.As the murders continue, the pressure on Rita reaches boiling point, and she must muster all her profiling knowledge and ingenuity to help catch the killer before he strikes again. ### About the Author Robert Sims grew up in Melbourne, going straight from high school to journalism and working in an array of newspaper and radio jobs. He took a career break from journalism to complete a degree in Politics + Philosophy, then spent more than 20 years in London working for Independent Radio News and ITN. Robert and his wife and young sons now live in Melbourne.

A brutal predator is on the loose, targeting women and savagely attacking them. His first victim is found chained, blinded and hanging on to life by a thread. His next target isn't so 'lucky'. After a forced bondage session, her ears are cut off and she's left for dead.As the attacks become more frenzied, and the mutilations ever more vicious, the pressure on the Melbourne homicide squad reaches boiling point. Along with her colleagues, Detective Marita Van Hassel must muster all her profiling knowledge and investigative ingenuity to catch the killer before he strikes again. But first she must crack the killer's obsession with firelight and shadows . . .In this dazzling debut novel, Robert Sims takes us on a thrilling journey into the dark mind of a disturbing killer.