Heart of Skulls

When Scott Nelson first meets Natalie, all he can think about is slitting her throat. Until he realizes they share alarmingly similar home lives. Scott is an outcast with an abusive father, while Natalie is a punk with colorful hair and dreams of being an artist to avoid ever speaking to her family again.

Believing that distance from his father's violent tendencies will relieve Scott of his own rage, he and Natalie do the only thing they can to break free of their abusive families: run away.

As soon as they pack up Natalie's rusty Volkswagen in the middle of the night and begin their new lives, Scott's gruesome cravings become harder to ignore. Blending in for the sake of a future with Natalie, Scott does his best to block out the violent thoughts fighting to take hold.

But he can only contain his murderous cravings for so long. After watching a stranger overdose at a party, Scott can't deny his urges. From that night on, Scott's hands are caked with the blood of young girls. Young girls who resemble Natalie …

A terrifying exploration of a killer's mindset, debut author Ashley Earley compiles some of the world's most notorious serial killers into one antagonist in an attempt to answer the age-old question of "are killers born or made?"