Since serial killer Gretchen Lowell went on the run, following Detective Archie Sheridans latest near-fatal encounter with her, the city of Portland has descended into Beauty Killer hysteria. Even fan sites have sprung up online, where admirers of Gretchen can congregate to discuss their heroine. When a spleen is discovered at a local rest stop, Detective Henry Sobol is at first sceptical it is Gretchens work. It is only when he sees the rest stops wall -covered in hundreds of tiny red hearts that Henry realises its time to contact Archie ...Archie Sheridan has spent the last few months in the citys psychiatric hospital, battling with his addiction to painkillers and his strange obsession with the woman who tortured him. But soon he, along with the Beauty Killer taskforce and journalist Susan Ward, find themselves investigating a new spate of killings - when bodies start to turn up at local beauty spots, their eye-balls removed.