The man without a face. Without fingerprints. Who was

he? Who murdered him so viciously, so unspeakably? And

why, suddenly, is there a rash of patient deaths at the pres-

tigious Los Angeles hospital---mysterious deaths for which

there is no explicable cause?

These are questions confounding Dr. Joanna

Blalock, a leading forensic pathologist, as she tries to piece

together the faceless man s identity through computer tech-

nology and her own desperate guesswork. When Joanna

finally identifies the man, she is stunned to discover a con-

nection between his brutal murder and the other dead

patients.

Something is wrong. Terribly wrong. And little by

little, with the help of her former lover, homicide detective

Jake Sinclair, Joanna begins to collect horrifying clues to

this nightmare. But as they pile up, each points in a differ-

ent direction. The great hospital she always respected has

been shot through with suspicion and scandal, and every-

one seems to have something to hide. But most chilling of

all, Joanna is being drawn into a game of deceit and death

with an unseen enemy who knows that she has already

discovered too much. An enemy who has killed not once

but many times. An enemy who is privy to all the intri-

cacies of the medical system. An enemy who is after her

life, too.., closing in on her.., leaving her nowhere to

run.., no place to hide.., no one to trust