"A string of macabre killings has shaken St. Louis to its core. Dr. PJ Gray, psychologist and expert in the field of forensic computer simulation, draws the nasty assignment of ferreting out the murderer. As head of the police department's Computerized Homicide Investigations Department (CHIP), PJ has already cracked two gruesome cases using a virtual reality program that allows her to "see" the murders from the killer's perspective. And while PJ uses her keyboard, her partner and friend, cantankerous detective Leo Schultz, uses old-fashioned legwork to sift through the grisly pieces of this puzzling case."--BOOK JACKET. "On the homefront, PJ's twelve-year-old son Thomas finds himself drawn into a relationship with Columbus Wade, a curiously aloof schoolmate who also happens to be a computer genius. At first PJ encourages her son's friendship with Columbus. The solitary boy is in need of a gregarious companion like Thomas. But she soon finds herself uneasy. Thomas is surely and withdrawn in Columbus's company, and lately he's been spending unusually long hours in his room."--BOOK JACKET. "Then the killer strikes again, only this time it's one of Thomas's teachers who is viciously slaughtered. PJ is horrified that murder has moved into her son's world, but even she doesn't realize how close the danger is. Until she discovers that Columbus is the mastermind of a secret virtual world in which he designs murder scenarios eerily similar to the ones paralyzing the city. Now PJ is waging cyber war with a foe who may still be a child, but whose skills are more than equal to her own. And she has to act fast. Columbus is about to "delete" his next victim ... unless PJ can beat him at his own deadly game."--BOOK JACKET.