Tom McKay, a San Diego Police Sergeant, finds his wife murdered in their up-scale Mission Hills home--the first in a series of bazaar killings that are occurring in a backwards order--victim #1 is killed by victim #2, victim #2 is killed by victim #3, and so on. In his desperation to find his wife's murderer and stop the next, he recruits Mindy Masters--an independent forensics consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department. Mindy is reluctant at first, but figures that if she can solve the serial killings using her expertise, she'll sell thousands of books. After the second killing, Mindy receives a death threat in the mail and discovers that all of the victims were members of the varsity football team and cheerleaders. A high school report card is attached to each victim, and thus the string of homicides is called The Report Card Murders.