When Sonny Coleman is gunned down while on a late-night run near the community college where he teaches, his mother Erin Coleman, the US Ambassador to NATO, wishes to avoid his death becoming an international media circus. To this end, she hires Bobby Cain and Harper McCoy to discretely investigate her only son's death. Shortly after their arrival in the rural Tennessee town, the body of a young woman is found and it appears she is the latest target of a killer known as the Tallyman, due to his tauntingly carving the victim number into the flesh of each corpse. But the killer, after tallying four murders, fell silent for several years. Why has he resurfaced now and why is the latest victim marked with a seven? Are there two missing bodies? Is his reappearance connected to the seemingly random murder of Sonny Coleman? The suspect list is tenuous at best and Cain and Harper must sort through past and present crimes, as well as Sonny's life, to uncover a ruthless and truly sociopathic killer.
"A fast-paced atmospheric thriller with endearing characters that stay with you long after you finish. A series that keeps getting better and better. Fans of Orphan X will love it."-David Putnam, Author of the Bestselling Bruno Johnson Series

D. P. Lyle is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Award-winning; and Edgar (2), Agatha, Anthony, Shamus, Scribe, Silver Falchion, and USA Today Best Book (2) Award-nominated author of 18 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the Samantha Cody, Dub Walker, Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series and the Royal Pains media tie-in novels. His essay on Jules Verne's THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND appears in THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS, his short story "Even Steven" in ITW's anthology THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER, and his short story "Bottom Line" in FOR THE SAKE OF THE GAME. He served as editor for and contributed the short story "Splash" to SCWA's anthology IT'S ALL IN THE STORY.
He is International Thriller Writer's VP for Education, and runs CraftFest, Master CraftFest, and ITW's Online Thriller School. Along with Jan Burke, he was the co-host of Crime and Science Radio and hosts the podcast series Criminal Mischief. He has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Women's Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars.