Mid-August 1975, Maurice "Mo" Lumen is exiled from his home in Virginia, bearing the weight of what he's left behind-accusations, a half-brother, and an inhospitable cot. With the mind and heart of an eleven-year-old-the result of a self-described "accident"-and a love of baseball, Mo emerges in Rhode Island just shy of his twenty-fifth birthday. As summer yields to a rain-soaked fall, his frustration rises when news of a prolific killer in the region, nicknamed the Pastoral Predator, overshadows the Red Sox march to the World Series, and Mo unwittingly becomes a central figure in the investigation.
FBI Chief Investigator Francis Palmer, fresh off the ensnarement of a monster-Ted Bundy-is thrust into the Pastoral Predator's destructive path. Permanently scarred by every killer he's hunted down, The Beast inside Palmer simmers as the investigation hits closer to home, forcing him to confront his demons.