"Every Goodbye Makes The Next Hello Closer"

An arrested prostitute calls FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy claiming to have important information for her. Deliah Rose tells her that a wealthy john is taking street prostitutes to his place, then paying them to let his poisonous spiders crawl on them and engage in other dangerous activities. She states that her friend Ginny was with him and has vanished. Delilah has found Ginny's boyfriend's school ring in the john's car and wants Agent Quincy to stop him.

Kimberly's associate, Sal Martingnetti also informs Kimberly that he's worried that someone is picking off hookers. Twice he has had the drivers licenses of three women placed on the windshield of his car. But, no bodies have been found so it's difficult to get his superiors to permit him to mount an investigation. Even though Kim is five months pregnant, a time that women might begin to take things easier, she decides to work with Sal to attempt to find and stop the person responsible for his crimes against the prostitutes.


One night they follow Delilah down a street where they know that Ginny's boyfriend was shot and realize that Delilah is really Ginny. Ginny admits it and tells them that she calls the john Dinchara, a play on the word arachnid because of his fetish with spiders. She realized that Dinchara gets a kick when someone shows fear so when she didn't scream after Dinchara placed a black widow spider on her, he let her live. He does make her turn tricks and once per month he meets her and gets a payoff.


Kim and Sal must find a way to get Ginny to take them to Dichara and get enough evidence to convict him of his crimes. They propose Ginny wear a wire. Then they find that Dinchara has a teenage boy helping him and is also grooming a younger boy. Now their mission is to stop Dinchara and rescue the boys.

The author knows suspense and has given her readers a story that will keep them mesmerized until the end. She tells her readers that the idea for the story came from her adorable daughter who became obsessed with spiders. Her characters are well described and the antagonist was truly evil, not only doing terrible things to people but training young children to help him in his crimes.

A well done novel that will keep Gardner's fans coming back for more.