It is May 1943. On the remote island of Bougainville, in the South Pacific, a squad of United States Marines beats their way through the thick jungle. They've landed to do battle with the Japanese soldiers on the island, but in short order, they begin to realize that the forbidding battleground holds an ancient secret a hundred times more terrifying than any enemy army---especially when they start finding the bodies.

Flash-forward to July 2008. In the slums---and the skyscrapers---of Boston, a new kind of depraved serial killer is stalking human prey and terrifying the city. The...