Cross
James Patterson
 Alex Cross narrates the opening section of the book in flashback from Washington, D.C. in 1993. Pregnant Maria Simpson Cross and Alex live happily together, but mob hitman Michael Sullivan aka The Butcher and his partner Jimmy "Hats" Galati are out to make life miserable for him. While on an errand for boss Dominic Maggione in the Baltimore/Washington area, Sullivan rapes a college teen and participates in the execution of Chinese Jiang An-lo, but is witnessed by Cross and partner John Sampson. After Sullivan pays a frightening visit to Cross at night, Alex loses his wife to gunshots the next night. The action takes in place in D.C. in 2005. Cross prepares to return to private practice, leaving the FBI over the objections of director Ron Burns. At the same time the Butcher has to do a job in Venice for the new boss, Maggione's son, who does not like Sullivan. He realizes that something is strange with his targets. It’s a trap and the couple were sent by Maggione Jr. to kill him. Because of luck and his excellent skills he survives and seeks bloody revenge. He wants to kill Maggione. Both Alex and the Butcher go to work, the former trying to solve a series of rape and murder cases in southeastern D.C., the latter trying to protect his family from the vendetta-wielding John Maggione. But he is not aware that Alex thinks he committed the rapes he's investigating-and killed his wife so many years ago. The Butcher is in Washington, still trying to fend off attacks from Maggione, but Alex is on to him. The Butcher manages to kill John Maggione in a complicated plot, but find Alex and Sampson waiting for him. A shoot-out begins in which Alex is injured and Sullivan killed. Sampson ends the story by confessing a long-kept secret.