The doll maker

Philadelphia detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano return to the city's streets to hunt a killer who has been murdering children and arranging their bodies in deliberate displays. The case opens in a quiet suburb, where a woman riding her bicycle past a train depot with her little girl finds a dead child posed on a freshly painted bench. Nearby lies a formal invitation to a tea dance one week away.

Seven days later, two more young victims turn up in an abandoned house, seated on painted swings, and another invitation has been left behind. This time the detectives also receive a delicate porcelain doll, which is both a message and a threat. With the killers still free, Byrne and Balzano have one more week to find the link between the murders before another child vanishes.