''Somebody just shot my kids!'' Diane Downs brought her car to a halt in front of a Springfield, Oregon, hospital, her three gravely wounded children beside her.

Thus begins the shocking tale of a truly unthinkable crime that shattered the tranquillity of a tight-knit community. As police searched for the ''shaggy-haired stranger'' Diane accused of shooting 8-year-old Christie, 7-year-old Cheryl, and 3-year-old Danny in cold blood, a suspicion grew that was even more horrifying than the crime itself: Did Diane shoot her own children?

A dedicated district attorney, haunted by this question, searched for the destructive forces that seemed to possess this beautiful young mother and uncovered a chronology of incest, psychological wounding, desperate affairs and surrogate motherhood.

Ann Rule''s gripping, powerful and ultimately terrifying true story of passion and murder will hold you in thrall as it plumbs the unimagined depths of darkness concealed within a human being.