Patterson brings back fan favorite Alex Cross for a 17th time with this volume, and this time it is an opportunity to come up with his former friend and nemesis, Kyle Craig, who has been lurking around in the background of the last few books. The novel starts with Craig getting the finishing touches on a round of plastic surgery that will allow him to work his way back into the FBI under the guise of another agent who had been working undercover on a case for the last few years. As a result, he will be back in the Washington area to get get his final revenge on Alex for sending him to a high security, solitary confinement prison in Colorado for years before escaping.

Life for the Cross family seems to be going well. The two older kids are making their way in the world, settling into successful school careers and Nana Mama still sticking around to take care of the whole gang. Alex and his girlfriend and fellow police officer Bree Stone are getting really serious, and there is talk about wedding bells in the air.

All of this is taking place as two series of killings seem to be hitting the capital city. The first set is targeting good folks turned bad in what appears to be a vigilante sniper shooting spree. The victims include company executives that cheated employees out of the retirement investments and a number of others who seem ripped from the headlines of the last few years. In some ways, the public seems to be on the side of the snipers since they are being viewed as messengers of justice.

The other murders seem to be drawn from one of Alex's former cases as all the bodies are turning up with numbers carved into their bodies. Other than that, the clues are pretty limited.

Alex is working frantically to get to the bottom of the cases while also trying to fend of Kyle Craig who has sent a message that he is keeping his eye on the whole Cross family. While Alex doesn't know that he is working directly with him under his new guise. Will they be able to work together to solve the cases? Could Craig actually be connected (or even directing) the murders? Will Alex be able to find Craig before any of the Cross clan end up hurt or dead themselves?

This is a typical Cross tale, though I thought it was a off to a slow start. I did end up enjoying it quite a bit, though I am a bit baffled by the fact that Patterson once again brought back Christine, the former school principal and mother of Alex's youngest son Ali, to once again show off how crazy she is. It seems to serve no purpose other than to further debase the poor woman, whose life seem to flip out of control after she was taking hostage to punish Alex by one of his other criminal targets because she was his wife. If anything, I think these little cameos make Alex seem like a totally selfish and unsympathetic character when you figure how much Christine has lost because of him, yet he fells no compassion for her. To make matters worse, the events never seem to add anything to the novels in which they occur go figure.

If you are into the Cross series, then this is definitely a must read because Kyle Craig as a challenger for Cross is always a guaranteed hit. As usual, it is a quick read high on action and conversation between characters, but not really all that literary.

The book does end with a sneak peak at a return of another one of Cross' former challengers so it seems that there will at least be a number 18 in this series, which (prior to this addition) seemed to be getting a bit stale.