From the #1 New York Times bestselling duo Preston and Child comes the Agent Pendergast origin story--a golden opportunity for longtime fans and new readers to learn about Agent Pendergast's strange and shocking first case. It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand new FBI agent--a certain A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended. Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. What starts off as a whimsical quest swiftly turns into a terrifying pursuit, as Chambers and Pendergast uncover a string of grisly, ritualistic killings that defy any known serial killer profile. Thanks in large part to Pendergast's brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer... and that is when the true horror begins.