A mutilated body is found lying on the ground in Chicago, a dead hand pointing down Adams Street; also know as Route 66, a road of many names. And now of many deaths. A silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down, that road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more-all brought together by word that children's grave sites are being discovered along the Mother Road. Kathy Mallory drives with them. The child she seeks, though, is not like the others. It is herself-the feral child adopted off the streets, her father a blank, her mother dead and full of mysteries. During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting a killer like none she has ever known, and will undergo a series of revelations not only of stunning intensity--but stunning effect.