VENGEANCE IS HIS LAPD chief of detectives Derek Cheney has hung up his badge after nearly thirty years of learning how not to feel. But when his ex-partner, Frank Curtis, is brutally murdered, Cheney comes roaring out of retirement to nail one last killer. All too quickly, another victim turns up, and then another, each bearing the same mysterious blue ribbon as was found on Frank's body, but each apparently murdered by a killer in a different way. Cheney's frustrating search leads him down a twisted path paved with unanswered questions. And what he discovers about the killer-and the victims-will shock a cynical city and haunt Cheney forever.