When quiet Morrisville, a neighbor to a sprawling Midwest metropolitan area, is wracked with terrifying deaths, the mundane turns into paralyzing fear, the commonplace into the deadly, and routine activities become a blind gamble with life itself in the balance. John Wolfe is a moral man struggling in a time of situational ethics, who, as chief of police, must follow a vague and twisting trail through the dark depths of the mind of a murderer. Wolfe must find his way through a maze of elusive evidence that is further complicated by a copycat with his own agenda and by an almost perfect frame by the killer. Government agencies with institutional secrets, federal law enforcement officers more interested in career advancement than justice, opportunistic politicians, and a media competing for ratings through sensationalism all impede Wolfe. When Wolfe finally finds the killer, events lead to Instant Justice.