A missing little girl named Maggie Rose. A family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C. The thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher. A psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who calls himself the Son of Lindbergh. He is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him-even after he's been captured.Gary Soneji is a mild-mannered mathematics teacher at a Washington, D.C., private school for the children of the political and social elite. He's so popular that the kids all call him "Mr. Chips." And he's very, very smart. Growing up, he always knew he was smarter than the rest of them-he knew that the Great Ones always fooled everybody. He kidnaps Maggie Rose, the golden-haired daughter of a famous movie actress, and her best friend, Shrimpie Goldberg, the son of the secretary of the treasury, right out from under the noses of their two Secret Service agents. But Gary Soneji is not surprised at his skill. He's done it before. Hundreds of times before.Alex Cross must face the ultimate test as a psychologist: how do you outmaneuver a brilliant psychopath? Especially one who appears to have a split personality-one who won't let the other half remember those horrific acts? Soneji has outsmarted the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police. Who will be his next victim?
Along Came a Spider
James Patterson
eMusic Review 0
10.30.07
James Patterson, Along Came a Spider
2007 | Label: Little, Brown
Widowed forensic psychologist and homicide detective Alex Cross is busy trying to solve the brutal murders of an African-American family in Washington D.C.'s Southeast neighborhood when serial killer Gary Soneji kidnaps two children — the daughter of a film actress and the son of the Secretary of the Treasury Department — from a posh private school. The chief of police insists Cross and his partner, Sampson, take up the case. Cross, who identifies more readily with the victims in Southeast, reluctantly agrees to take on the kidnapping and joins the increasingly frantic hunt for the missing children. The more he closes in on Gary Soneji, the less he knows about this mysterious and sinister character who seems to taunt the police by anticipating their every turn. At the same time, Cross finds himself in the clutches of a new love affair with Secret Service agent Jezzie Flanagan — a romance that serves as a nice distraction from the gruesome tasks of his job and allows him to move on emotionally after his wife's murder a few years back. Bodies pile up as Patterson's increasingly complicated plotline twists and turns, but Cross's curiosity about the human mind drives the story and his search for the truth further.