When a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran is bludgeoned and stabbed to death in his campsite close to a railroad crossing, Detective Sergeant Bill Palmini has a gut feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Taking command, he swiftly embeds a trusted informant into the shadowy subculture of rail hoppers. What the veteran cop doesn't know, however, is that the murderer is already thousands of miles away and the brutal killing is just one of scores, possibly hundreds, he has committed. Following the killer's bloody trail of death and terror over an eightmonth period, Palmini learns of a violent, predatory pack of criminals: the FTRA. Freight Train Riders of America. This drug-fueled, counter-culture gang from hell lives by a vicious code of robbery, rape and murder on the rails--and Palmini's prey is one of its most feared members. The killer, Robert Silveria, is captured and Palmini begins to interrogate him. A strange, inexplicable bond forms between them. As the relationship deepens, Silveria confesses to a fourteen-year killing spree and murders in twenty eight states. At his trial, the serial killer is sentenced to life in prison and Palmini continues working with the FBI and other law enforcement groups to crack down on the vicious FTRA gang and make the nation's rails safer for all of us.