When Robert Mallon stumbles upon a dying woman on the beach in Santa Barbara, his everyday life is changed forever as he and his ally, Detective Lydia Marks, set out to investigate the young victim's life, a case that brings them into fateful conflict with a sinister underworld of dark secrets and deadly hatreds masterminded by Parish, an amoral predator who runs a training camp for killers. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.