Detective Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is on the hunt for an elusive murderer. He2s a brilliant hit man who changes his appearance faster than he adds to his trail of victims, only one of whom has lived long enough to offer a clue: the assassin has an eerie tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing in front of a casket. Rhyme, paralyzed from a line-of-duty accident, is certain he's seen this killer before, and his suspicion of an earlier encounter fuels a bitter taste for vengeance. When the chameleon-like assassin targets three federal witnesses for death, the stakes reach a new high. Now Rhyme's brainpower and his protǧě Detective Amelia Sachs2s legwork are the only tools they have to track the cunning murderer through a darkly painted New York City, and they have only forty-eight hours before the killer strikes again.