<DIV>In her eerie and hair-raising thriller <I>Skin</I>, Mo Hayder trails her two unforgettable protagonists as they race to staunch a rising tide of blood in a sweltering port town. When the decomposing body of a young woman is found, the wounds on her wrists suggest an open-and-shut case of suicide. But Jack Caffery is not so sure. Other apparent suicides are cropping up, and they all have a connection to Elf's Grotto, a nearly bottomless network of flooded quarries just outside the city. Caffery begins to suspect a shadowy and sinister predator, someone&#8212;or something&#8212; that can disappear into darkness and slip into houses unseen. Working alongside Caffery is rough-and-tough police diver Flea Marley, but while pursuing her investigation, she stumbles upon something far too close to home that no one&#8212;not even Caffery&#8212;can help her face. <I>Skin</I> is a penetrating dissection of family, friendships, and the evil that can tear them apart&#8212;or bind them together. Devious and disturbing, it introduces one of Hayder's most horrifying villains yet. </DIV>