Bare light bulbs shone against walls painted with graffiti and dried blood, the rooms reeking of a sweet pungent odour like burnt plastic...? So writes award - winning Hamilton Spectator journalist and author Jon Wells in one of four harrowing murder stories in Death's Shadow. Wells take readers up close into multiple homicide investigations, the agony of victims and their loved ones, and the chilling dance of death between cold - blooded killers and the hard - boiled investigators hunting them. His research draws upon jailhouse interviews with three of the killers as well as with homicide and forensic detectives, and the stories are augmented by crime - scene photographs and portrait photography of all the players. Wells writes of victims and survivors, angels and demons, travelling winding roads to imperfect justice in intimate glimpses of horrific crimes.