Nature of Evil
by Robert W. Stephens
Rome, 1948. Italy reels in the aftermath of World War II. Chaos and depression reign and it’s fertile ground for a killer to strike. Twenty women are brutally murdered, their throats slit and their faces removed with surgical precision. Then the murders stop as abruptly as they started, and the horrifying crimes and their victims are lost to history.Now over sixty years later, the killings have begun again. This time in America. All of the new victims share common traits. They’re all prostitutes, all have criminal records, and all are left in public places where their mutilated corpses can be discovered quickly. The city is in a panic as the monster dubbed “MAI” by the media seems to murder at will.It’s up to homicide detectives Marcus Carter and Angela Darden to stop the crimes, but how can they catch a serial killer who leaves no traces of evidence and no apparent motive other than the unquenchable thirst for murder? The only cryptic clue they have to go on is the three letters “MAI” the killer carves into the flesh of his victims. But what do the letters mean and how do they connect with the crimes? More and more bodies pile up, and soon the murders become personal for Marcus as he realizes the killer is sending him messages that only he can interpret. But can he solve their mystery and stop a killer who has become a master at the game of death?