Savannah is one of America's most beautiful and historic cities. Yet underneath the mint juleps, oaks bearded with Spanish moss and the splendor of colonial architecture, there lurks a deadly undercurrent. This is a first-person account of an award-winning newspaper crime reporter's career, covering scores of murders in the Savannah area, including one of the bloodiest eras in the city's history: in 1985, metro Savannah earned notoriety with the nation's highest homicide rate.

The author describes a wide range of crimes, including murders over a 14-year-old lover, $4 for hamburgers or a baby carriage; the grisly murders of voodoo priests; bound corpses in the waterways and interstate body dumping grounds; the Scarecrow and Say Cheese Killers, serial killer Wade Sheffield; and many more.