He steals little boys and kills them, thriving on the mothers' anguish. He is the Chocolate Man, a methodical serial killer who has already abducted seven children. But with number eight the Chocolate Man makes a terrible mistake: the child he takes is a little girl. Desperate and confused, this obsessive psychopath doesn't know what to do next-- and neither do the police.

While they scramble to predict the Chocolate Man's next move, terrified yet resourceful nine-year-old Emily Lookinland struggles to survive the clutches of a madman who is both grown-up monster and lonely child. And,...