There Are No Saints

Cole Blackwell is San Francisco's most celebrated sculptor — wealthy, controlled, and admired. He is also a serial killer, and the city is his hunting ground. When a chance encounter puts Mara Eldritch, a broke and overlooked painter, in his path, her narrow escape from death fascinates him rather than satisfies him.

He starts watching her, drawn into her life in ways he never planned. As Cole's obsession deepens, a rival killer named Alastor Shaw begins circling Mara too, seeing her as a way to get at Cole. The first half of the Sinners Duet, ending on a cliffhanger resolved in "There Is No Devil."