Isaac Bell may be on the hunt for the greatest monster of all time in this riveting action-adventure novel from #1 New York Times –bestselling author Clive Cussler.   The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt which leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Anna Pape was not alone in her fate—petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America. And the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims—there are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell. If he is right about his fears, then he is on the trail of one of the greatest monsters of his time. Praise for the Isaac Bell Novels “Cussler and Scott have written another wonderful page-turner. This is historical action-adventure fiction at its rip-roaring best!”— Library Journal (starred review) “As always in this series, the novel is very exciting, with excellent pacing and some very well-drawn characters. Cussler is a perennial A-lister, popularity-wise, and his Isaac Bell novels are the pick of his prodigious litter.”— Booklist “The Isaac Bell series is a fun jaunt into America’s past and the books are a wonderful examination of life in the early twentieth century.”—Associated Press “ The Assassin is...action-movie-paced entertainment.” — Kirkus Reviews Clive Cussler  is the author or coauthor of more than 50 previous books in five best-selling series, including Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell, and Sam and Remi Fargo. His nonfiction works include  Built for Adventure :  The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt , plus  The Sea Hunters  and  The Sea Hunters II. They describe the true adventures of the real NUMA, which, led by Cussler, searches for lost ships of historic significance. With his crew of volunteers, Cussler has discovered more than 60 ships, including the long lost Confederate ship  Hunley . He lives in Arizona. Justin Scott has written more than 30 thrillers, historicals, and mystery novels, including The Shipkiller , Normandie Triangle , and The Empty Eye of the Sea . With many books set at sea, he has been called “the Dick Francis of yachting.” His main pen name is Paul Garrison, under which he has written five modern sea thrillers, including Fire and Ice , Red Sky at Morning , Sea Hunter , The Ripple Effect , and the Paul Janson series based on a Robert Ludlum character. Scott created the Ben Abbott detective series and was twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America. He collaborates with Clive Cussler on the Isaac Bell series ( The Wrecker , The Spy , The Race , The Thief , The Striker , The Bootlegger , and The Assassin ). He lives in Connecticut with his wife. PROLOGUE   new york, autumn 1910   “Medick is dead!”   Jackson Barrett crashed through John Buchanan’s dressing room door, waving the Cognac bottle they kept for opening nights and bankable reviews.   Buchanan was blacking his face for tonight’s Othello—his Moor, opposite Barrett’s Iago. He tossed his greasepaint stick with a jubilant, “Best news we’ve had in a year!”   Nothing personal against Medick. That workman-like actor had struck it rich playing the dual title roles in the old Mansfield–Sullivan dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But his sudden death left the gold mine up for grabs, and they had a scheme to grab it with an all-new, modernized Jekyll and Hyde that would clean up on Broadway and launch the richest cross-country tour since Ben-Hur.   They banged glasses and thundered toasts.   “Barrett and Buchanan .. . .”   “Present . . .”   “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!”   The brandy barely wet their lips. They worked too hard managing the Barrett & Buchanan Theater Company to be drinking men, and their temperate habits kept them ruggedly youthful. Tall and broad-shouldered—“Lofty of stature,” in the words of the New York Sun critic pinned above Buchanan’s mirror—they bounded onstage like athletes a decade younger than their forties. Jackson Barrett was fair; John Buchanan, his near twin, was slightly darker, his hair more sandy than Barrett’s golden locks. Both shimmered with the glow of stardom, and their intense blue eyes famously pierced women’s hearts in the back row of the highest balcony. The ladies’ husbands rated Jackson Barrett and John Buchanan as hearty men’s men—fellows they could trust.   “I’ve been thinking . . .” said Barrett.   “Never a good sign,” said Buchanan.   “What do you say we switch our roles back and forth—keep ’em guessing who’s who. First night, I’m Jekyll, and—”   “Next night, yo