"A serial killer is strangling young women and dumping their lifeless bodies in the steep, forested ravines of southern Indiana. With each corpse he leaves a calling card: a stone figurine wedged deep inside the victim's throat. The police have never seen anything like it---but FBI forensic anthropologist Christine Prusik has. In fact, it's a ritual she knows all to well. Years ago she was a naive young researcher doing field work in Papua New Guinea when she was attacked by tribesmen who placed carved stones inside the bodies of their dead. Prusik barely escaped with her life---and a nasty scar from the wound intended to house her own death charm. Is it a grisly coincidence? Or is someone sending her a message? Now she must find the killer before he finds her---and finally completes the deadly ritual begun in a distant jungle so long ago." - Cover.