Newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to use his final days at the L.A. Times to write the definitive murder story of his career. Focusing on the case of Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder, Jack realizes that Winslow's so-called confession is bogus and that the real killer is operating completely below police radar--and with perfect knowledge of any move against him.

Los Angeles, 1908. Ex-heiress, Anna Blanc, is precariously employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, reforming delinquent children and minding lady jailbirds. What she really wants is to hunt criminals and be alone with Detective Joe Singer-both no-nos that could get her fired. On a lover's tryst in Griffith Park, Anna and Joe discover the body of a young gambler. Anna can't resist. She's on the case. With a murder to solve and her police matron...

"The nightmare descends on a Tuesday. A routine welfare check on an older married couple turns into something out of a horror movie when their bodies are discovered mutilated inside their house. After two other couples die, it becomes clear that there's a serial killer stalking Hollywood. Dubbed the 'Eastside Creeper', the murderer camps out in crawl spaces of his victims' homes, sometimes for days, before killing them. And then, like smoke, he vanishes....