Passion, fear and jealousy culminate in the murder of illicit lovers and set long-time friends on a collision course. When Luke Johnson, Chief of Police in Somerset, begins to unravel clues to recent murders of two life-long friends, he does not anticipate solving the massacre of a mother and her three children eight years earlier. Chief Johnson's investigation leads him to a remote cave in Pine Hills Forest Preserve near treacherous Devil's Backbone high above Sugar Creek where he discovers the hideout of a mysterious evil stranger.--From publisher's description.