"After sociopath Paul Renard burned down the Sterling Psychiatric Hospital more than thirty years ago, the citizens of Brenner, Iowa, felt they'd endured their share of misfortune. But when a trail of mutilated bodies - voodoo symbols carefully carved in their flesh - turn up in the small town and no one has a clue about the identity of the killer, Brenner once again becomes the setting for tragedy." "Psychological profiler Robert Payne investigates. Many shady characters call Brenner home, and all have reason to sweep ashes under the rug. There's the private eye, a more sinister creature than those he stalks; the fragile television psychic, her powers failing; her aggressive sister, a cutthroat television producer bent on success. But many citizens suspect Rick Hennessey, a troubled local boy fascinated by the occult and by voodoo. Accused of murdering his girlfriend, Hennessey claims that the spirit of Paul Renard possessed him." "Faced with the town's rage, Rick tries to kill himself; his psychiatrist, Dr. Aaron Williams, steps in to support his patient. When Payne volunteers to monitor Dr. Williams's research, he observes that this man is not a traditional psychiatrist, and reaches some disturbing conclusions of his own. But do Williams and Payne really know the power of the forces they are dealing with? Now they must uncover the truth before a voodoo curse from the past destroys the present."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved