EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD ERIC HAS just been released from juvenile detention for murdering his mother and stepfather. Now he's looking for some tenderness--tenderness he finds in caressing and killing beautiful girls. Fifteen-year-old Lori has run away from home again. Emotionally naive but sexually precocious, she is also looking for tenderness--tenderness she finds in Eric. Will Lori and Eric be each other's salvation or destruction?

"Cormier is in top form in this chilling portrait of a serial murderer. . . . Gripping."--School Library Journal, Starred

An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults