Roses Are Red (Alex Cross Novels)

A brilliant criminal known only as the Mastermind orchestrates a series of bank robberies that are notable for their very precise demands--and their explosive violence when the demands are not met exactly. Detective Alex Cross takes on the case and recognizes that a particular kind of criminal mind is at work. But before he gets near identifying a suspect, the Mastermind pulls off the most outrageous kidnapping scheme in US history--and walks away with the largest ransom ever paid. But the money is not enough. Alex Cross's investigation has gotten under the Mastermind's skin, and he makes it his personal goal to take revenge on Cross's entire team, one person at a time--before coming after Cross himself. Amidst all this, Cross's relationship with his girlfriend Christine is falling apart because of her fears about his work, and his beloved daughter Jannie is hospitalized with unexplained seizures. The pressure rises on every front until an explosive, shocking climax in which the Mastermind escalates his crimes to an unprecedented level, and Alex Cross risks everything to stop him in time.

The Mastermind is a deadly criminal who orchestrates a series of bank robberies that are notable for their precise demands - and their explosive violence when the demands are not met exactly. Detective Alex Cross takes on the case, promptly getting under The Mastermind's skin, who makes it his personal goal to take revenge on Cross and his entire team. The team, which includes an attractive FBI agent named Betsy Cavalierre, faces pressure on every front right up to the shocking and explosive climax. Patterson, author of seven national bestsellers, is a past winner of the prestigious Edgar Award.

"Patterson keeps the pages turning all the way up to the jaw-dropping conclusion...this one is not to be missed." (Booklist)

Roses Are Red, James Patterson's sixth Alex Cross thriller, opens with the District of Columbia detective attempting to mend his nearly unraveled family. The year-long kidnapping of one's intended (1999's Pop Goes the Weasel) will do that to a relationship. Christine, the kidnappee, is amenable with one reasonable condition: that her family's horizon remain uncluttered by homicidal maniacs. How unfortunate, then, that the joyous christening of their newborn son is rudely interrupted by the FBI bearing news of several heinous murders requiring the attention of detective (and doctor of psychology) Cross. "Three-year-old boy, the father, a nanny," Kyle said one more time before he left the party. He was about to go through the door in the sun porch when he turned to me and said, "You're the right person for this. They murdered a family, Alex."

As soon as Kyle was gone, I went looking for Christine. My heart sank. She had taken Alex and left without saying good-bye, without a single word. Which leaves Cross free to hunt the Mastermind, the barbarous brains behind a widening series of bank robberies in which employees or their family members are held hostage and, when instructions aren't followed to the finest iota, slaughtered. Given the cases' glaring and unfathomable inhumanity, Cross's long- time DCPD partner (the wonderful giant, John Sampson) gives way to the warm, attractive, and fiercely intelligent FBI Agent Betsey Cavalierre.

The longer and harder Cross and Cavalierre remain on his trail, the bolder and more brutal--and shiveringly close to home--the Mastermind's strikes become. And, thanks mostly to lightning-short paragraphs and a point of view that rappels from the first-person Cross to the third-person Mastermind, the tale progresses at hot-trot speed to a bona fide doozy of a denouement. It'll be over before you know it, so sit back, hold your breath, and enjoy the show. And stay tuned for the next one. --Michael Hudson