April 1950: The rusting hulk of a steam locomotive is raised from a Montana lake. Inside are the remains of three men who died forty-four years before... 1906: For two years, the western states of America have endured a string of bank robberies by a single man who cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and then vanishes withouth a trace. Fed up by the depredations of the «Butcher Bandit», the U.S. government brings in the best man they can find — a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell. From Arizone to Colorado to the streets of San Francisco during its calamitous earthquake and fire, Bell pursues the sharpest and deadliest criminal mind he has ever encountered using science, deduction, and intuition. But his quarry is getting angry, and plans to turn the chase back to Bell. And it will take all of Isaac Bell's skills not to merely prevail...but to survive.