Alex finds himself being drawn back into the DC Metropolitan Police again for two reasons. The first is a burgeoning romance with a detective named Bree Stone. The second istied to a request to assist with a new murder who seemsto be doing what he can to make a big splash in the media trhough a series of live graphic murders that starts by dropping a woman off a 12th story deck. He is given the interesting monicker DCAK, or DC area killer.

As Bree, Alex, and his good friend Sampson are circling the case witht hopes of finding DCAK before someone else falls victim to him, Alex learns that Kyle Craig, his former friend from the FBI who became one of his most difficult foes in the form of the Mastermind, has escaped from the maximum security prison he was being held at in Colorado before he is supposed to be executed. Craig, too, starts to leave a trail of bodies based on those he has a vandetta against because he blames them for his caputre.

Slowly, the two cases begin to merge into one, placing Alex and his friends in serious danger that may kill them all before they bring the criminals to justice. While all of this is taking place, Alex seems able to build his growing private psychology practice, using techniques that would make any real-world counselor cringe in horror.

I liked this one a lot. There was lots of suspense, and Cross is always interesting when there are pairings of past and present nemeses. It is a great book as long as you really don't think too much about the details because that is when you start to see how badly together the plotline (and Alex's actions) are put together. Alex should lose his license, and our cast of heroes really should have ended up dead rather than being saved by pure luck and hubris on the part of all of the madmen/-women.