She smelled it, fresh death. Both metallic and fruity. Easing the door all the way open, she found it . . . It's Christmas-time in New York City, but homicide lieutenant Eve Dallas struggles to get into the holiday spirit. Finding a woman strangled to death by a murderous Santa doesn't help. And he's left behind a present: a partridge in a pear tree, pinned to the victim's hair. With a creeping dread, Eve watches the bodies mount and realises the key - the killer is counting down the twelve days to Christmas. And there is only one connection. The victims had been using the same dating service. Eve enters a dark world where searching for The One is fraught with terror, leaving her racing to find the murderer, as things get much too close to home.