"It's a misty morning on a misty beach, a day like many others, when young Eliot Gardener does something unexpected. He picks up a machete and calmly strikes down his father, mother, and ten-year-old sister, Rosie. Rosie survives, gravely injured. His parents die." "What causes the teenager to go berserk? He's not talking, especially not to Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg, head of the Canadian Mountie unit in the beautiful, coastal town of Sechelt." "Eliot's motives for destroying his family lie buried deep in his wounded psyche. Only when he escapes from a temporary detention center with a younger boy, Alvin, does he begin to focus on reality. The boys must find a way to eat and sleep. They must try to survive." "Karl wants to help Eliot or at least understand what led to the family's tragedy. But Karl has concerns of his own, when someone from his past arrives in town. His name is Jack Coutts, and he's a man burdened with malice, with guilt, and, as his lustful landlady discovers, with a gun. Wherever Alberg and his fiancee, Cassandra Mitchell, go, Coutts is there, watching and waiting."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved