The quiet suburb seems peaceful enough, until loner Donny Mann succumbs to the irresistible urge to Drive the web of the Southern California freeways, armed with a stolen .38-and the unspeakable need to fire it. He finds his victims soon enough-an old, black Cadillac alone on a dark stretch of highway. Three people witness the shooting. Three people see the Caddy crash. Three people know that no one left the wreck. But when the police arrive, they find the car empty of anything save blood.and the horror locked in its trunk.

One after another, the citizens of Tamarind Valley fall prey to something, or some thing, that feeds on fear and grows exponentially in power with each victim. Donny's brother Richard gradually realizes that he stands at the center of an expanding circle of evil. If he and his friends do not prevail, the evil will!

MICHAEL R. COLLINGS has written and edited over forty books of horror, literary criticism, and poetry, among others, many of them being reprinted by Borgo Press. He lives and works in Idaho.