A teenage runaway’s body is found in the basement of a rancid tenement building in the desolate, dangerous North Philly district dubbed the Badlands. The inexplicable cause of death: drowning. Months later, this dormant homicide case stirs back to life. A confession to the bizarre murder sends Philadelphia police detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano rushing to make an arrest. But what they find will chill these hardened veterans to the bone. As the body count grows, a terrifying design literally takes shape. Pieces of a gruesome puzzle are being set into place by a madman using the city as his game board. His playthings are the innocent, and his opponents–and pawns–are Byrne and Balzano, who must, before time runs out, decipher the truth about a shadowy house of horrors and its elusive master.
- ISBN10 0345492420
- ISBN13 9780345492425
- Publish Date 26 August 2008
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 28 August 2012
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Random House USA Inc
- Imprint Random House Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 381
- Language English