New Year''s Eve: Long Island detectives Devon Halsey and Lochwood Brennen, secret lovers, are thrust into mayhem by the grisly murder of Devon''s best friend. What has haunted Devon for years begins to take shape, and as she dissects the file, she learns that the carvings in the victims'' bodies are actually Koans-unanswerable questions that must be meditated upon in order to reach enlightenment.

Heather Dune Macadam is a professor at Suffolk County Community College and a former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. She is the author of "Rena''s Promise," a nonfiction memoir about Auschwitz, which was nominated for a National Book Award. Her writing has appeared in "Newsweek "and the "New York Times Sunday Magazine."