In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr.Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry.Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, andsexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins whenhe was brutally murdered in his luxurious PacificPalisades apartment. The police have no leads, butthey do have one possible witness: seven-year-oldMelody Quinn.It's psychologist Dr. AlexDelaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secretburied in Melody's memory. But as the sinistershadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alexdiscovers that the mystery touches a shockingincident in his own past. This connection isonly the beginning, a single link in aforty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakableevil that Alex Delaware must expose before itclaims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.