William Diehl has written five previous best-sellers, each of them superb, selling millions of copies around the world. Yet nothing he has done before can prepare you for Primal Fear. In Chicago, a sainted archbishop is slain, mutilated, and dismembered in his rectory. Moments after the murder, an angelic-looking young man, Aaron Sampler, is found crouched in a confessional, covered with blood and clutching a butcher knife - but swearing he is innocent of the heinous act.

Enter attorney Martin Vail. Vail is so good at his job, he's managed to infuriate every judge, prosecutor, and politician in Illinois. Now they're paying him back - by forcing him to defend Aaron Sampler and plead a case he cannot possibly win. But Vail is no ordinary lawyer, and the legal team he assembles is no ordinary backup squad. There's Jack Scalding, and ex-judge whose main passions in life are playing the horses and arguing the law; Tommy Goodman, Vail's top investigator, an ex-boxer studying to be a lawyer so he can follow in Vail's footsteps; Molly Arrington, a young and beautiful psychiatrist, and the one who is the first to understand the extraordinary truth that lies behind the killing of the archbishop. Once Vail begins to do what he does best - figure all the angles - so begins a court battle worthy of Presumed Innocent and a nightmare of terror every bit as horrifying as The Silence of the Lambs.

A featured alternate selection of the Literary Guild, and soon to be a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures, Primal Fear is a novel of brilliant suspense, memorable characters, and superb plotting, setting it apart as the thriller of the year.