What causes a beloved son to go wrong? The product of demanding parents who greatly mistreated him, he thinks they must have loved him at one point. But as the child of a rural community without mental health care, his young soul was on its own as their behavior twisted and shaped his irrevocably. Without guidance or guidelines, he develops a predatory view of other humans and begins to make terrible, deadly decisions in his quest for some sense of dark justice and fairness. On his first excursion from his home community, he makes the first of many extreme remedial actions against humanity. As "the Farmer Boy Murders, " as they come to be known, continue, one law-enforcement official's obsession swells to match that of his quarry. As the body count begins to grow, Special Agent Lars Peters grows more and more confounded. A creature of methodical logic, the bungling of the investigation by the local authorities does nothing to calm him. No matter what he does, the Farmer Boy always remains one step-and one brutal murder-ahead of him. Encouraged by a big break, Peters races to the scene of the latest murder. Yet again, the Farmer Boy is gone. The only witnesses prove to be as infuriatingly inscrutable as the murderer. Once the killer realizes that he has engaged the attention of the special agent, he ramps up his game even more. Can Peters outwit the Farmer Boy before he kills again?