Every other chapter skips from the fifteenth to the twenty first century. In both time frames a woman is a principal in the investigation. The modern woman has her own troubles balancing her career with her responsibility as a mother of three. In the past, a widow now nun searches for her son’s killer and is chilled when she realizes she was his wet nurse. Both women try to comprehend the killer’s capacity for evil. He is indeed a monster, one who steals the souls and innocence of society’s most vulnerable beings. Even more frightening is his system for selecting his victims.

Giles de Rais is charged with heresy and even his military reputation and wealth cannot save him. The present day monster is protected by celebrity status also and seems immune from prosecution. In both cases justice and truth triumph, thanks be to God and the persistence of mothers.

Once the reader adjusts to the chapter by chapter time difference he or she will be hooked. I found my self researching Giles de Rais and wished he were merely a creation of the author and not historically accurate. Serial killers seem limited to the United States and within the last two centuries but Ann Benson proves this a fallacy. Evil prowls the streets of our century just as it has since time began.

--Jane Davis