Art critic Jeremy Grove is discovered dead in a room barricaded from the inside, his face frozen in a mask of terror, his body temperature grotesquely high. The smell of brimstone is everywhere and there is the unmistakable imprint of a claw burned into the wall. As more bodies are discovered - their only connection the identical manner of death - the world begins to wonder if the devil has come to collect his due. With Officer Vincent D osta, FBI Special Agent Pendergast faces the most treacherous and dangerous adversary of his career...