August 2005.Amid death and destruction, hurricane-savaged New Orleans has a new dark force to fear. As the rescue efforts unfold, a grisly discovery is made at one of the massive refrigerator a oegraveyards.a One of these metal hulks contains six human hands - all female, all right hands. The press has dubbed the unknown perpetrator a oeThe Handyman.a But with no way to trace the origin of this refrigerator, and with evidence lost to time and the elements, the case dead-ends. Captain Patti Oa (TM)Shay is a straight-arrow, by-the-book cop who is assigned to the case. Her tough, unflinching character is fractured when her husband and fellow police captain is found murdered - surprised by looters taking advantage of the post-storm chaos. August 2007Patti, still grieving and disillusioned, gets a call from homicide: skeletal remains have been unearthed in City Park. The unknown victim - a female - is missing her right hand. But for Patti, this grave holds something even more shocking. Found beside the victima (TM)s bones is her husbanda (TM)s police badge. Casting aside the very a oerule booka by which she has lived her life, Patti is fearless - but so is the killer. As he stalks her she is forced to question all she believes in, to doubt the code she has lived bya ]because she knows that if she doesna (TM)t find The Handyman first, she will become his last known victim.