Patterson's fans have been waiting a year for this one, since the heart-stopping conclusion of the last Alex Cross outing, Roses Are Red (2000), which revealed the identity of Cross' new foe, the Mastermind. The Mastermind is still plaguing him, but he becomes distracted when FBI liaison Kyle Craig calls him in on another case. A new set of killers is on the rampage, viciously attacking their victims and drinking their blood. These vampirelike killings lead Cross to San Francisco, where he partners with detective Jamilla Hughes. Cross interviews people associated with the vampire cults, some of whom actually believe they are vampires. The killers lead Cross and Hughes on a cross-country chase, striking seemingly at random. Cross believes that he may have found a pattern to the murders when he discovers that the killings are taking place in cities at the same time two magicians, David and Charles, are performing. In the meantime, the Mastermind is closing in on Cross, leading to the showdown fans have been waiting for. Patterson has set up a difficult task for himself: to create a confrontation that will be as gratifying as fans expect after the revelation of the Mastermind's identity at the end of Roses Are Red. Though the novel doesn't pack as much punch as it should, since the vampire murders, not the Mastermind, take up the majority of the book, Patterson still manages to come up with a satisfying ending, leaving readers to wonder what is next for Cross.

Only a writer of Patterson's star-wattage could have hoodwinked his publisher into bringing out this unlovely mess, which pits forensic psychologist Alex Cross against two separate serial killers. It begins with the slaughter of still another of Cross's professional and romantic partners, FBI agent Betsey Cavalierre, by Cross's old nemesis, the Mastermind ( Roses Are Red, 2000), who instantly phones to taunt his adversary. With still another partner dead, how can Cross go on? But he has to, immediately, because another killer is on the loose—actually, a pair of killers, William and Michael Alexander, teenaged vampires whose murder of two army officers in Golden Gate Park is just a warmup for the carnage to come. As the Mastermind keeps trying to get Cross's attention by threatening his adorable kids, his grandmother, and everyone else he's ever known, Patterson, apparently eager to escape the constraints of the low body count in the soapy Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas (p. 694), unleashes the hounds of hell. Under the direction of their dread Sire, the exultant Alexander brothers ("We're immortal! We'll never die!"), leave a trail of gory victims in Las Vegas, Savannah, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge before returning to Santa Cruz for a climactic sequence that finally unmasks the ho-hum Sire. The moment the vampire chronicles end, Cross, without missing a beat, turns to that other serial killer, and soon, courtesy of one of his famous profiler's hunches, has the Mastermind in his sights. Can he hunt down his enemy before the Mastermind exacts a terrible vengeance against somebody else—say, beauteous Jamilla Hughes of San Francisco Homicide—whose death would reduce Cross to babbling despair? The grade-school characterizations of everyone from cops to victims to cackling psychos guarantee that you won't care a bit. A real test for Patterson's huge audience: If they buy this, they'll buy anything.