A killer walks the streets of New Milford. He kills discriminately. He kills with purpose. He kills so cleverly that no one in the sleepy little town knows he exists. He masks his murders under the guise of suicides and accidents. His victims share a common thread: each has been abusive to animals, and each has crossed the path of Maggie McCarthy. All Maggie McCarthy ever wanted was to live quietly and anonymously in her home town, running the small pet shop she inherited from her father. Instead, she unwittingly finds herself at the epicenter of a string of serial murders. At the center of the investigations is Detective Jake Allen, a small-town cop with a disturbing past. To piece together the puzzle, Jake - or "Worm," as he was known as a boy - must first unravel the mysteries of his own tortured past. Worm combines the twists and turns of a murder mystery with the spine-tingling undertones of a horror novel. It is a story of abuse and retaliation, of love unrequited and fulfilled, of each person's search for his true identity. From the heart-grabbing opening to the shocking conclusion, Worm will keep you guessing until the very end.