The Skin Collector

From the author of The Bone Collector, now an NBC TV series, comes the #1 international bestselling sequel, in which Lincoln Rhyme must untangle a twisted web of clues before a criminal inspired by the Bone Collector targets more victims -- or Rhyme himself. The killer's methods are terrifying. He stalks the basements and underground passageways of New York City. He tattoos his victims' flesh with cryptic messages, using a tattoo gun loaded with poison, resulting in an agonizing, painful death. When a connection is made to the Bone Collector-the serial killer who terrorized New York more than a decade ago-Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are immediately drawn into the case. Rhyme, Sachs, and the NYPD must race against time to answer the many questions the investigation uncovers: Whom will the killer attack next? What is the message behind the victims' tattoos? Does the killer's own inking--a fanged centipede sporting a woman's face--hold any significance? And what is his ultimate mission?

As time runs out, Rhyme discovers that the past has returned to haunt him in the most troubling way imaginable...