In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. In Washington, DC, Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers, Casanova and The Gentleman Caller, are collaborating, cooperating, competing--and they are working coast to coast. The case eventually takes Cross to the Deep South, where his niece, a law student, has been abducted. Will she be the next victim of one, or both, of the killers?