US exchange student Hieronymous Beck is Professor Jack Griffen's biggest fan. Why else would he inveigle himself into the English Literature course that Jack is running, and why else would he devote so much time to chatting with Jack after hours about the anatomy of crime fiction, the roles of heroes and villains, and his favourite true crime book of all time, In Cold Blood ? But everything changes when Jack Griffen picks up a list of five templates to murder that has been written by Beck. The mild-mannered professor who has never incurred anything more than a parking fine suddenly finds himself in a deadly race to protect those he loves, as he is plunged into Hiero's crime writer's fantasy and the darkness of his student's heart.