A serial killer has struck again. FBI Special Agent Victoria Santos is tracking the string of gruesome murders from New York to San Francisco, from Miami to Oregon. Her only lead: the distinct savagery of the slayings, "signed" with the killer's own brand of barbarism.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Tribune reporter Mike Posten has covered thousands of horrible crimes in his rough-and-tumble career. But nothing has prepared him for an anonymous call from a mysterious stranger who claims his mind works so much like the killer's that he can actually predict the next attack - time, place, victim. The only catch is, the man wants money. A lot of it.

It could be the scoop of Mike's career - or the end of it. Haunted by a failing marriage and a back-stabbing rival in the Tribune newsroom, Mike isn't sure if the caller is the killer or the evil genius he claims to be, and he wonders which would be worse. He has never paid for a story, and he doesn't intend to start now - unless it could help stop a killer.

When the caller's grisly "predictions" prove true, Mike secretly contacts the FBI, and Victoria targets his informant as the breakthrough she's been waiting for. At once a strange alliance and a classic struggle between the FBI and the press, Mike and Victoria form the front line of attack, with Mike as the go-between for the informant and the feds: "checkbook journalism," at its deadliest.

1. As FBI top brass become convinced that the informant is the killer, Mike and Victoria search for the elusive element that links the victims to a true psychopath. Soon their own lives are in danger, and they come face-to-face with the reason he kills without a conscience - and why it may be impossible to stop him.