Double Cross

October 22, 2007
Bestseller Patterson’s 13th Alex Cross thriller (after 2006’s Cross) pits the legendary profiler, now retired from law enforcement and working as a psychiatrist in private practice, against two serial killers. Kyle Craig, Cross’s former colleague in the FBI (who was revealed to be the Mastermind, a particularly vicious and resourceful murderer, in 2001’s Violets Are Blue), has managed to escape from a Colorado maximum-security prison and is steadily working his way through his list of those he holds responsible for his capture and incarceration. Cross, who heads the list, is drawn back into police work by his love interest, Maryland homicide detective Brianna Stone, who’s been assigned to the task force focusing on the D.C. Audience Killer (or DCAK), who stages high-profile and sadistic murders to get the most public attention possible. Even newcomers will find themselves turning the pages to see how everything turns out, but significant plot holes and implausibilities make this a far cry from the similar, but far more suspenseful, two-front war waged by Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

Patterson offers the thirteenth in the mega-chiller escapades of former FBI Profiler Dr. Alex Cross, who is now in private psychiatric practice in Washington, D.C. This time Cross and his new girlfriend, Homicide Detective Brianna Stone, are stalking and being stalked by two grotesque serial killers, DCAK ("Audience Killer"), who wants his crimes staged and viewed by the public, and "the Mastermind," a former FBI friend of Cross who has escaped from a maximum security prison. Cross is at the top of their hit lists. Peter J. Fernandez and Michael Stuhlbarg deftly manage the multiple characters in this thriller, carrying the listener through the various, and often confusing, layers, sliding over the plot holes and inconsistencies, and galloping to a breathtaking climax. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine