Drafted in to investigate a series of killings by a butcher known as the Skin Collector, NYPD detective Lincoln Rhyme and his associate Amelia Sachs have little to go on but a series of cryptic messages left etched into the skin of the deceased.

Chinatown gang leader "Lucky" Louie was shot outside of a Chinatown off-track betting establishment on the thirteenth of January, and lay in a coma for 88 days, waking on Easter Sunday. The number 88 is a double-helix, double-lucky Chinese number; religion and superstition all lean Lucky's way. But Detective Jack Yu, Lucky's boyhood blood brother, fears his friend's luck is about to run out. When Lucky embarks on a complex and daring series of crimes...

"It's December 1896, and after marrying a muckraking reporter, detective Mary Handley shifts her focus pursuing new cases to raising her newborn daughter. But when her husband is found dead, Mary knows that her next case must be solving his murder. Harper was working on a big story--did it get him killed? Mary's investigation soon leads to the very top of the New York food chain. Realizing she's outgunned, Mary turns to the one person who might be...