In the prologue to one of Patterson's previous novels, Jack & Jill, a killer preparing to assassinate Senator Daniel Fitzpatrick neatly sums up the major themes of Patterson's novels: "Horror stories and games are popular for a good reason . . .
Not the comfortable sit-around-the-campfire horror tales and games we used to cherish as kids, but the real live horror stories that are everywhere around us these days." The killer goes even further, saying that he "believed only in the validity of the game of chance." Horror, the idea that life is a game, and the idea that bad things happen by chance are integral themes in James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, but the ultimate effect is terror because of the irrationality and brutality of serial murders, especially in light of the national paranoia.....
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