In a Publishers Weekly interview with Andre Bernard and Jeff Zaleski, James Patterson said, "The Cross books are about nightmares that I have—not literal nightmares but nightmares that I have about the world" (1996). One of these nightmares in America is racism. Alex Cross, an African-American who grew up on the mean streets of the Southeast area of Washington, D.C., must confront racism in many guises as he works as a police detective. In fact, his boss, George Pittman, is described as "a bully, bigot, racist and careerist." Apparently, according to Patterson, cut-throat careerism is as bad as racism. But the real social problems in the novel center around Southeast, a slum area, where Geoffrey Shafer, the villain, dumps the bodies of his victims. When Shafer kills two young girls in the area, a cousin of one of the victims tells Cross, "The police...