Another female student has been found strangled the body count is up to three, and everyone suspects there will be more. But for Peter, a reticent teacher at Minnesota's Wanekia High School, his own morbid fascination with the murders haunts him more than the morning headlines. Keeping a detailed journal of his community's action and his own Peter discovers a disturbing ambivalence toward violence in the midst of uncommonly savage acts.

A taut suspense novel that is at once compelling and thought-provoking, "In a Dark Time" ingeniously explores our culture's complex relationship with violence and paints a vivid portrait of America too often color-blind to the bloody hues that tinge its landscape.