It is a boiling summer in Boston. Adding to the city's woes is a series of shocking crimes that end in abduction and death. The pattern suggests one man: "The Surgeon," serial killer Warren Hoyt, known for his partial dissection of his victims, and recently thrown behind bars. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that's what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who literally and figuratively scarred her, she is determined to finally end Hoyt's awful influence. But Rizzoli isn't counting on becoming a target herself. Yet once Hoyt is suddenly free, he joins his mysterious blood brother in a vicious vendetta.