Short description
With a new woman in his life and the Mastermind in prison, Alex Cross is ready to leave the Washington Police Force. But John Sampson begs him to take one last case - his best friend has been accused of an horrific triple murder and Alex must break through military secrets to find the killer.
Long description
Now the Mastermind is in prison, Alex Cross is ready to leave the Washington Police Force. And, finally, Alex has met a woman, Jamilla Hughes. With Nana and the kids, he is talking about the future. Until John Sampson arrives and begs him to take on one last case - his best friend has been accused of a horrific triple murder. Three women were knifed at an Army base. His fingerprints and DNA have been found - but Sampson's friend swears he has been framed, and that Alex is his only hope...Uncovering evidence of a series of suspicious murder convictions, Alex and Sampson are determined to infiltrate the closed world of the military. But what is the army trying to hide? And do the mysterious symbols daubed on the homes of the accused mean that there are more sinister forces at work?
Review
On the day he plans to announce his retirement from the Washington Police Force, Detective Alex Cross gets a visit from John Sampson, a lifelong friend who desperately needs Cross to take on one last case. Another old friend from Sampson's army days - Sergeant Ellis Cooper - has been found guilty of a brutal triple murder and has only a few weeks left before he is due to be executed for a crime he didn't commit. Despite his protestations to the contrary and the evidence of a young witness, the forensic evidence points to Cooper, and the clock is ticking. It doesn't take long for the author to plunge the reader into that familiar thrill-a-minute world populated by many of his other bestselling novels. We are quickly introduced to the repulsive 'blind mice' of the title, three of them anyway - obnoxious army veterans with a nice line in all-American family man values and a particularly nasty penchant for indulging in sick 'games' that dates all the way back to their clandestine days in Vietnam's An Lao Valley. Cross and Sampson soon realize that Cooper's situation is far from unique, and he's not the first distinguished soldier to be set up by a seedy operation that runs deep through the closed ranks of a decidedly uncooperative military. While a gruesome pattern of murders emerges, the two find themselves up against the odds as they frantically attempt to reveal the sickening truth about just who is behind the four blind mice. Occasionally, over-sentimentality in Cross's domestic life threatens to undermine the chilling nature of this story, but for the most part it is as gripping as its predecessors. And somehow, despite the detective's protestations to the contrary, there's always the suggestion that there are more Alex Cross adventures to come. (Kirkus UK)