A Vietnam vet haunted by dark secrets joins the hunt for a savage monster that's slaughtering innocent women in the bloody East Bay night Aaron Holliman returned from the jungles of Vietnam a changed man. An ex-intelligence officer at the height of the Southeast Asian conflict and a brutalized former prisoner of the Viet Cong, Holliman has experienced enough violence and horror to last a dozen lifetimes, yet he is willing to lend his expertise and uncanny insights to beleaguered police departments struggling to solve gruesome, perplexing murders. Now, with an uncommonly savage rapist/murderer prowling the parks and wild lands of San Francisco's East Bay, the cops need Holliman's unique skills more than ever.   But there is something distinctly inhuman about this killer who shatters his victims' bones and tears their flesh to bits--a monstrosity that seems to have emerged from Holliman's most terrible nightmares. The hunt for a bloodthirsty beast through the shadows is suddenly testing the very limits of the haunted ex-soldier's strength and sanity, inspiring blackouts and bringing back brutal images and memories that would be best left forgotten. Worst of all, the chase feeds Holliman's darkest fears: that there is nothing he can do to end the slaughter . . . and that the monster is much closer than he thinks.