An unidentified woman in a nightgown is the victim of a hit-and-run accident that leaves her unconscious and seriously injured. The image of the young woman stumbling along a dark, winding road is one true-crime writer Molly Blume cannot shake. It draws her to a bedside in intensive care, where, before dying, the victim whispers three names: Robbie, Max, and Nina. It is sufficient enough to reinforce Molly's gut instinct that there are sinister circumstances behind the assault on Lenore Saunders.

Friday, October 31. 9:37 p.m., 100 block of South Martel. A vandal threw a pumpkin through the front window of a house and several eggs at the front door. The police report read like just another Halloween prank - a nasty, petty act. But the attack is one in a recent spate of increasingly violent vandalisms targeting residents who have paid millions of dollars for their dream homes in the ritziest enclaves of Los Angeles.

Stabbings, even fatal ones, are not uncommon in Los Angeles. But the stabbing death of Aggie Lasher - a vibrant young woman dedicated to helping others and, it seemed, deeply loved by everyone who knew her - was especially tragic. For almost six years she has been obsessed by the mystery of her best friend's murder: If she had been with Aggie, would the killer have chosen another victim? Will the killer ever be caught?

Reuben Jastrow, swears that he desperately needs Molly's help in finding his 18-year-old daughter, Hadassah, who has run away from home to be with a man she met on the Internet. Molly hesitantly agrees - and immediately has regrets. For Reuben hasn't told her the whole truth. The more Molly looks for clues to the missing girl's fate, the more she wonders: Is Hadassah a random victim of a predator, or is the girl a pawn in a scheme of revenge against her family?