Alex Cross returns for another adventure, only to find himself dragged into the political upheavals that are still tearing up post-colonial Africa in countries such as Nigeria and the Sudan. It all begins as Dr. Cross is drawn into an investigation of a family that is butchered in their ransacked home in Georgetown. While doing the initial walk-through, it does not take long for Alex to realize that he knows the mother of the family, Ellie Cox. In fact, she was his college sweetheart.

After college, Ellie went on to become a writer, and Alex comes across her most recent manuscript, an examination of why Africa's nation's struggle to reach stability when they have access to moneys from natural resources. It is this investigation that gets the attention of Tiger, a terrorist/gun-for-hire who works with his team of boy-soldiers to assassinate and butcher people (and usually their whole families) for money.

The deaths of the Cross family is duplicated in other similar murders, and Alex follows a lead on the Tiger that brings him to Nigeria, where he is confronted with government officials that seem to work hand and hand with the countries underworld leaders and CIA officials who are reluctant to do anything more than protect him from death.

I do have to say this is the first time that I found myself really not liking Alex as a character. He has always been the hero who rises to the occasion to take down the monsters that he seems most able to tackle. This often puts his friends and family in danger, something that has often made a number of them ask him to slow down a bit. These are pleas that he always ignores and finds ways to convince them they are worrying too much. All the while they continue to get hurt.

This time, he becomes an uber-hero who unrealistically seems able to solve international problems while the "stupid" professionals who have been working on resolutions for years are portrayed as evil. Patterson clearly has a political motive behind the theme of the book. I have to say I support what he is trying to promote, particularly as he brings the reader into the darkest corners of refugee camps created to house those who have escaped from Darfur or the horrible corruption that is evident in many of the petro-governments in Africa. With that said, the plot and the character suffers from the forced fit.

I would rather have had a standalone novel written with a character that has the background and the training (more than a police detective and psychologist) to play James Bond or Jack Ryan and save the day.