Step back into the year A.D. 1263...and the secret lair of a killer. He walks the ruins of a dying civilization, stalking the weak, the chosen, stalking them into terror.When War Chief Browser stumbles into a subterranean ceremonial chamber filled with headless bodies, he know it is just the beginning. The darkness that has haunted him for most of his life has returned. A murderer lurks in the shadows around Browser's village, taking people one at a time. Browser turns for help to a crazy tribal elder who has solved many crimes before. Browser is certain old Stone Ghost knows the killer, but the elder is telling no one. As Browser frantically works to find the fiend, the murderer watched from closer than he would ever dream...Only a few heartbeats ahead in geological time, archaeologist, William "Dusty" Stewart, finds himself excavating a mass grave in new Mexico filled with the burned bodies of children. As the number of bodies begins to mount, he is forced to call upon the skills of his arch-nemesis: world-reknowned Canadian physical anthropologist, Dr. Maureen Cole. What Dusty and Maureen discover about the killer's methods is almost too horrible to believe.From the national award-winning archaeologist and international bestselling author of The Vistant comes a novel of unforgettable terror about mass murder in America eight hundred years ago...

Kathleen O'Neal Gear is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has twice received the federal government's Special Advancement Award for "outstanding management" of our nation's cultural heritage.W. Michael Gear, who holds a master's degree in archaeology, has worked as a professional archaeologist since 1978. He is currently principal investigator for Wind River Archaeological Consultants.The Gears, whose First North American Series and Anasazi Mystery Series, are both international as well as USA Today bestsellers live in Thermopolis, Wyoming.