After the slaughter of his girlfriend by an unknown assassin, Nicholas Newman wants only to start afresh. However, when a link is made between killings across Europe, he reluctantly agrees to help the police again. When attempts are made on his life, he realizes his nightmare has only just begun.
Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April, nine feet under water, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved fingers around a human hand. The fact that there's no body attached is disturbing enough. Yet more disturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the matching hand. Both have been recently amputated, and the indications are that the victim was still alive when they were removed. DI Jack Caffery has been newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He and Flea soon establish that the hands belong to a boy who has recently disappeared. Their search for him - and for his abductor - lead them into the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld, where drug addiction is rife, where street-kids sell themselves for a hit, and where an ancient evil lurks; an evil that feeds off the blood - and flesh - of others ...
Jeff Talley, veliteľ policajného okrsku v mestečku na juhu Kalifornie, kedysi pracoval ako vyjednávač v elitnej jednotke SWAT losangeleskej polície. Po tom, čo v jednom prípade nezvládol vyjednávanie, zomrel mladý rukojemník a Talleyho odvtedy trápia nočné mory. Jedného dňa sa traja chuligáni rozhodnú vykradnúť obchod s potravinami v jeho okrsku, no lúpež sa končí vraždou. Mladí vrahovia na úteku pred spravodlivosťou zajmú Waltera Smitha a jeho dve deti a zabarikádujú sa v Smithovom dome. Situácia sa ešte väčšmi komplikuje, keďže Smith robí účtovníka mafii, a tá ho chce za každú cenu živého. Neváhajú uniesť Talleymu manželku a dcéru a donútia ho tak čeliť svojej nočnej more – musí opäť vyjednávať o životy nevinných ľudí