| Detective Alex Cross is a homicide detective/psychologist working for the Washington, D.C. Police Department, specializing in tracking-down some of the most vicious serial killers in the country. In Patterson's sixth Cross novel, our hero faces a man who may be his most ruthless and terrifying adversary ever.
A series of brutal mutilation-murders have gone almost unnoticed in Washington, D.C., as the victims of these heinous crimes are all residents of the area of D.C. known locally as Southeast, a near-ghetto with a sky-high crime-rate. But one man cares: Detective Alex Cross. As Cross investigates the "Jane Doe murders," so-called because of the killer's habit of stripping his victims of both clothes and ID, he comes across a lone suspect: Colonel Geoffrey Shafer, a British diplomat and family man who learned to kill as an MI-6 agent in Vietnam, a man who eats unprescribed prescription medication by the fistful and plays a deadly online role-playing game called "Four Horsemen," in which he is the player known as Death. But Shafer is not the sort to take this unwanted attention lying down. In a daring and vicious counterattack, he kidnaps Cross's fiancee Christine while they vacation in Bermuda. The abduction of his beloved sends Cross into an obsessive quest to nail Shafer, now dubbed "The Weasel" by the police, finally arresting him for the murder of Cross's partner, Detective Patsy Hampton. In a shocking twist, however, Shafer's high-priced lawyers win his acquittal, and the Weasel is set free. Now begins a high-octane game of cat-and-mouse that begins on the streets of Washington and ends on the island of Jamaica, where the players of "Four Horsemen" have gathered for one final round. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear) Time/era of story: Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book descript. of violence and chases - 20 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Crime Thriller Yes General Crime (including known murderer) Yes Who's the criminal enemy here? - finding a known killer If story PRIMARILY about main chr. being hunted... - game where people hunted Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 40's-50's Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: Eccentric: Yes Motive of antagonist - kicks How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting Island? Yes Island: - on vacation - Caribbean Island City? Yes City: - Washington D.C. Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture Explicit sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - actual description of sex Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation - diced - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives - blunt clubbing (like seals) Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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