As a child, Lysette Ormandy watched as her family was murdered. Comatose from her own injuries for a long period of time, she endured additional abuse from the grandmother who reared her. In order to earn money to support her passion for art, she becomes an exotic dancer under the pseudonym Cassandra. As Cassandra, she is confident, arrogant and brash. As Lysette, she is introverted, reclusive and awkward.

Violence enters her life again when her only friend is killed in the Philadelphia streets, a victim of a carjacking. Grieving, she leaves work early and is taking the subway home when she witnesses a young black man pistol whipping and robbing an elderly black man. In a rage, she wrestles the gun from the youth and kills him. The other passengers who were all too willing to sit and ignore the assault now urge her to flee before the authorities arrive.

Meanwhile, Shara Farris, who was introduced in Hungry Eyes, is back in law enforcement, working in a nearby community. She yearns to get back to Philadelphia and to right the injustice she inflicted upon her friend, Deidre Caffrey. Deidre, who has gone back to newspaper reporting, is working on an investigative piece whose theme is "What Happened to the Victims of Yesterday's Crimes?"

After Lysette kills again, Shara returns to town to help Deidre search for the killer. Deidre and Shara join forces with a veteran police detective, Lamar Briggs, and his rookie partner, Nina Rios, in a hunt that travels a twisted and tortuous path with many surprises.

This psychopathological thriller never stops hammering you with brutality, obsession, rape, abuse, social injustice, and pathos. What emerges is a plot that has an extraordinary number of parallels and layers. The new characters are sharply drawn and potent, the characters from Hungry Eyes are better defined, and the ambivalent ending in Hungry Eyes is now given some resolution.

Hoffman strikes a remarkable balance between victims who become victimizers and the victimizers that our judicial system allows to be treated as society's victims. The book jacket says it best: "…the scenes are so emotionally nasty, so heartbreaking, it almost physically hurts to read them." And a warning … do not expect that you will ever be able to forget them.

--Thea Davis