In the Adirondacks, a grandfather is killed while deer hunting. On New York City's East Side, two boys are kidnapped and a retired doctor is gunned down in the getaway. In midtown Manhattan, a former governor is abducted and viciously butchered, his throat slit. The killing has just begun… The crimes seem unrelated until maverick newspaper reporter Todd Paige, on a hot tip from ambitious NYPD lieutenant Sarah vanAllen, follows the trails of blood to a sleepy hamlet far upstate. For there, buried deep in the Adirondacks, lies the secret of the Wilderness, a hospital for the criminally insane; a place of corruption, abuse, and horrifying evil?evil in the guise of a heinous gang now loose and determined to wreck bloody vengeance for sins long past. And no one can stop them.