Gentlemen, meet the real Billy McIlvain, Creator of Heaven and Earth. . . . So proclaimed Bill McIlvain to the friends who'd gathered for his sixth birthday party. No one could have imagined on that festive day the twisted future that lay in store for young Billy. Billy's pedigree was distinguished. He was bright and well mannered. If little Billy McIlvain was guilty of anything, it was that he loved too much and too well. But then Billy watched helplessly as the person dearest to him was brutally murdered. The killers not only went free but cashed in on what they had done. The system had failed. For Billy, it would always fail. He was too young to have his revenge, but he would have it when the time was right, no matter the cost. Until that day, he could only wait. His family collapsed. Billy's mother, Grace, survived by plunging into a new career. She was away on business the day Billy's mind began to invent its own reality, the day he began his descent into evil. The papers and TV shows screamed the news of his inhuman act. He was a celebrity. Girls he didn't know sent him love notes and pictures of themselves naked. They sent him to prison, and he lost a decade and all hope of a normal life. They say that if you live long enough, you become the person you hate the most. . . . On his own at last, grown-up Billy is now thirty-three. The all-American boy has become the all-American killer.