Ben Nelson is 20 years old and an artist. His father is a conformist suburbanite, and Ben will do anything to get away from him. But when an inheritance finally allows Ben to move away, it is to the crumbling ruins of a factory on a deserted inner-city island with a bloody history. As the city is terrified by a string of murders committed by a serial killer known as the Grim Reaper, Ben finds that the Lyman soap factory - untouched for ninety years since its owner was taken to an insane asylum - conceals quite a few horrifying secrets. The owner had been associated with the insane inventor of a device to exercise Orwellian control over workers. Ben soon learns that there are people - both living and dead - battling over possession of the diabolical device. His investigations will lead him face to face with the Grim Reaper and the past he has fled. Drawing inspiration from the 1869 Eastman tunnel disaster in Minneapolis, this mystery weaves natural and supernatural elements to provide a chilling read.