Private Detective Julia Stark has been hired by famous actress Bianca Salo, who is convinced that her dead fiancé is stalking her. Just the night before, she’d awoken to find him standing over her bed, and previous to that, he’d broken into her dressing room at the theater and set fire to a dress.

It’s been three years since Bianca received the news of her fiancés sudden passing in a hotel room in Helsinki. She was in Stockholm at the time, playing the female lead in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. She collapsed on stage and the whole play was cancelled just a week after the premiere. Now, the ensemble and director have gotten a second chance to perform the ill-fated tragedy. Julia accompanies Bianca to the rehearsals, to watch over her but also to survey the people around her as the stalker seems to move about freely inside the theater. Almost none of the actors have alibi for the incidents and a great tension can be sensed boiling just below the surface.

Julia asks her ex-husband Sid to investigate the peculiarities surrounding Bianca’s fiancé’s death. They must rush to find the key as everything indicates that the stalker has entered the final, active phase of his pursuit, which often ends in violence and death. To solve the mysterious case, Julia Stark must employ all her psychological acumen, power of observation, and logical thinking.

I Close My Eyes and Pray is the second installment in Alex Ahndoril’s The Key series.