A man stumbles blindly across a New York City subway platform, falling in front of an early-morning train. When his body is recovered, it’s discovered that his eyes have been sewn shut. He is Paul Dorset, head curator at the Cloister’s Museum, renowned for his ability to discern great art. Why would someone deprive him of his most precious sense, sight?
On track to become a medical examiner as well as a detective, Dylan Dougherty joins the NYPD and races to find the hidden connections between a trail of highly successful victims who have all been deprived of a valued sense: Sight. Hearing. Smell. Taste. The victims are not killed, but maimed, with a sophistication and medical flair that suggest a motivation which is devastatingly personal.
As Dylan begins to connect the dots between these grotesque acts, she discovers –to her horror—that this ‘Maimer’ is becoming as obsessed with her as she is with him. While delving into the most intimate details of the victims’ personal lives, she must also juggle the demands of her own: her sick mother, her dissatisfied boyfriend; and an editor from the New York Times who seems to be taking an unusual interest in her.
With everything getting so terribly, strangely personal, Dylan realizes that her life is in danger of falling apart before she can put a stop to the madness.
Barbara Gural
Barbara Gural was born and raised in New York, where she received her BA in French from Russell Sage College and worked as a translator, interpreter for the Embassy of Madagascar and the European Communities in Washington DC. Research became her passion when she received her MBA with honors from George Washington University and changed her profession to work for the National Geographic Society, Marriott Corporation, and then turned to more creative tasks working for a marketing agency and finally ending her research career as VP of Research in the cable industry. Having written numerous research papers, she confessed to her husband and three children that her love of writing has turned to fiction. This is her first novel, and she has written four plays that she hopes will make their way to Broadway.
She has lived in Park City for 10 years, although she has a place in Santa Barbara that she loves. She is married to Tom Steinmetz and has three children and five grandchildren.