nA scandalous double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files on . . . Detective Alex Cross. nUntil Kay Willingham's shocking murder inside a luxury limousine, the Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and ex-wife of the sitting vice-president led a public life. Yet few -- including her onetime psychologist -- had any inkling of Kay's troubled past in the Deep South. nMurdered alongside her is Randall Christopher, a respected educator whose political ambitions may have endangered both their lives.

While John Sampson of DC Metro Police tracks Randall's final movements, Alex Cross and FBI Special Agent Ned Mahoney travel to Alabama to investigate Kay's early years. nThey discover that although Kay had many enemies, all of them needed her alive. Alex is left without a viable suspect, even as he faces a desperate choice between breaking a trust and losing his way -- as a detective, and as the protector of his family. nA double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files -- Detective Alex Cross. nKay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public -- she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and the ex-wife of the vice-president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private school, in the middle of the night, with the man who was the head of that school?

Who shot them both, point blank, and why? The shocking double homicide is blazed across the internet, TV, newspapers -- and across Alex Cross' mind. Kay had been his patient once.

And maybe more. nAlex Cross and FBI Special Agent Ned Mahoney travel to Alabama to investigate Kay's early years. There they find a world of trouble, corruption, and secrets, all of them closed to outsiders like Cross and Mahoney. Kay had many enemies, but all of them seemed to need her alive.

The harder the investigators push, the more resistance they find when they leave behind the polite law offices and doctors' quarters of the state capital. Alex Cross will need to use all his skills as a doctor, a detective, and a family man to prevent that resistance from turning lethal...again. nA double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files -- Detective Alex Cross. nKay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public -- she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and the ex-wife of the vice-president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private s