In October 2002, a nation still recovering from the 9/11 attacks found itself under siege once more -- by an unseen, unknown, and seemingly unstoppable enemy. For 23 days, the area around Washington, D.C., was the hunting ground for a pair of serial snipers who struck at random, killing from afar, only to vanish time and time again. With each attack, they raised the stakes, taunting the authorities to try to stop them -- until their luck ran out.

Here, from veteran reporter Angie Cannon and the staff of U.S. News & World Report, comes the complete story of one of the most heinous crimes in American history -- a chronicle of the harrowing days in October that took ten innocent lives and wounded three others; the means and methods used by law enforcement -- and their mistakes; the suspects' backgrounds and possible motives; and the fear that gripped a region of five million people and the effect these shocking acts of terror continue to have on American society.