Plot
Some boys discover the headless corpse of a young woman, 23-year-old Grace Ozmian, the daughter of tech billionaire Anton Ozmian. The police determine that a different person cut off her head than shot her through her heart to kill her. She was beheaded 24 hours after she was killed, and the beheading took place in the warehouse where her body was found.
While examining the scene, he comes across Pendergast. Apparently, Pendergast’s boss, agent Longstreet, is mad at him and punishing him by giving him the worst cases.
Lt. Vincent D’Agosta asks Pendergast to go examine the scene and then later accompany him to break the news to Mr. Ozmian about his daughter’s death. Pendergast is somewhat reluctant to get involved, but does so for his friend.
Shortly after, Marc Cantucci, a former New Jersey AG turned mob lawyer, encounters someone in his well secured home. He gets murdered and beheaded. Later, D’Agosta walks through his expensive home with a security expert, who details how the perp was able to defeat the state-of-the-art security system in the home. The security expert feels it was an inside job: either a current or former employee of the security company, Sharps and Gund, known for selling and installing state-of-the-art systems to the rich and powerful.
Bryce Harriman files an article describing how Grace Ozmian, while drunk and high, hit a kid who later died. Bryce Harriman finds out, even though the records were sealed, and publishes an article describing the incident, and how her rich father was able to get her off nearly scot free.
The next victim is Viktor Bogachyov, a Russian oligarch. He is also killed in his mansion, along with his 6 guards and their dogs, and beheaded. The police are investigating the former Sharps and Gund employee, Mr. Lasher. He shoots one of the officers with a shotgun.
He remains in his apartment, and the police respond, taking him into custody. He seems to be a complete nutcase: he believes in a bunch of conspiracy theories. After the police leave, Pendergast searches the apartment and finds a couple of grains of yellowish salt. Turns out that the substance is meth: and it gives Lasher an alibi, as he was seen buying it during the time Cantucci was murdered.
Two rich con artists, man and wife, the Burch’s, are killed and beheaded in their office. They would defraud vets and their widows out of their houses: truly horrible people. Bryce Harriman had suggested that the motive for the killing was rich, arrogant billionaires who had done horrible things on their way up. He and his theory become very popular.
However, there is another murder: a Nairobian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Wansie Adeyemi. She is killed after a speech at the United Nations, in the midst of a large security force. This murder throws a wrench into Harriman’s theory.
Some crazy ex-Jesuit priest, Marsden Swope, decides to call a new Bonfire of the Vanities, and invites everyone to come to the Great Lawn in Central Park to burn their valuables. Meanwhile, Ozmian blackmails Harriman because of the negative stories that he’s written about his daughter. He is able to send Harriman to jail for defrauding a charity that he established for his girlfriend who died of cancer several years ago.
Longstreet is sent an encrypted email, from Pendergast, mentioning that he and D’Agosta should meet him at an old, abandoned psychiatric hospital in King’s Park. Turns out, though, that it was actually sent by Ozmian, and he kidnaps them and uses them as bait to bring Pendergast to the facility.
When he arrives, he finds Longstreet decapitated. Ozmian killed all of the victims, including his daughter. He killed her in a fit of rage, after discovering that she leaked information that almost destroyed his company. He then decided to “hunt the biggest game” and kill the best defended people he could find, as he had given up big game hunting years ago. So, he targeted the best defended people he could find, and took their heads as trophies.
Now, he intends to hunt Pendergast in King’s Park, building 93, a 10-story decrepit building on the campus. Ozmian gives Pendergast a 10-minute head start. He has hooked up Vinnie to a dynamite vest: it will detonate in 2 hours, unless Pendergast is able to kill Ozmian and disarm the device with a key in his pocket. Ozmian had previously been a resident, after he was abused by a priest and stopped speaking.
Marsden Swope has his bonfire: but before it can finish, Captain Laura Hayward arrests him, and the police chase off the crowd. As they leave, though, many grab the un-burnt luxury items and run off with them. Meanwhile, Ozmian gets the drop on Pendergast and could kill him. As he thought he would be killed, an image of Constance came into his mind. Ozmian gives Pendergast a second chance, as he caught him too easily the first time.
They go back and forth, and eventually wind up in the basement. There, Pendergast discovers the records of when Ozmian was there as a boy, and was given experimental doses of shock treatment, which he has completely forgotten. Pendergast lures him into an old electroshock chair, by using the same narration that was used on Ozmian by the doctors, when he was a boy. Pendergast thus captures him, then pushes the remote control to release Vinnie.
Harriman is released, but chastised by his boss for getting the motive of the Decapitator so wrong. Pendergast and Vinnie are in Ozmian’s condo, and Pendergast finds the hidden trophy room, containing 6 heads and the corresponding plaques. The final one is empty: it was meant for Pendergast.
Epilogue. Pendergast, realizing that he cannot live without Constance, visits her at the monastery and requests that she return to NY with him. She agrees.
