More than thirty years ago, artist and serial killer Marsden Hexcamp was shot to death in an Alabama courtroom by a deranged fan. Days later, grisly evidence from his crimes vanished. But among underground collectors of the macabre, his art lived on...

Today, a prostitute's body found in a motel room is the first in a series of ghastly tableaus paying tribute to Hexcamp's unspeakable talents. The discovery will lead homicide detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus is into the shocking world of the Death Collectors, where madness is an art and murder is the most beautiful act imaginable.