Alex Cross

Cross heads from D.C. to North Carolina when his niece Naomi disappears. She's one of the college women taken by a masked man who calls himself Casanova.

Cross works with local police and the FBI and gains an ally: Kate McTiernan, the doctor who escaped the lair. A sedative leads him to William Rudolph in California, a second killer. Cross finds the hideout, rescues Naomi and the other women and kills Rudolph. Then he realizes Casanova's handwriting belongs to Detective Nick Ruskin, races to Kate's house and kills him.

A sting goes wrong, his partner Tracie Fisher dies and Cross quits the force. He comes back when Gary Soneji, posing as a teacher, kidnaps senator's daughter Megan Rose and calls him.

Working with agent Jezzie Flannigan, Cross figures out Soneji is copying the Lindbergh case and stops the kidnapping of the Russian president's son. After paying the ransom and killing Soneji, he sees the math doesn't add up. Jezzie used the kidnapping to grab the money. Cross tracks her to a farmhouse, shoots her and saves Megan.

In the reboot, Cross is a younger detective in Detroit, married to Maria, father of Damon and Janelle and grandson of Nana Mama. With childhood friend Tommy Kane and Detective Monica Ashe, he hunts the killer Picasso.

Picasso kills Monica and, while Cross taunts him, has a sniper kill Maria. Cross and Kane chase him to a church, where Picasso falls from the rafters and dies. Later, Cross learns who was behind it, Giles Mercier, and hands him to the Indonesian police. He and Kane decide to join the FBI.

On the show, Cross is still mourning Maria and raising Damon and Jannie with Nana Mama. Chief April Anderson puts him on the murder of activist Emir Goodspeed.

The case leads to wealthy Ed Ramsey, who follows a handbook of famous killers and is holding Shannon Witmer. Cross and Sampson save her, and Ed is stopped twice, even after faking his own death. At home, Peter Lenox attacks Nana Mama, and Cross learns the truth about Deirdre Nolan's confession. In the end, he starts therapy and visits Maria's grave.

Killer Rebecca is murdering billionaires tied to child trafficking, and Cross starts to see that her targets aren't innocent. The biggest, Lance Durand, built his Prosperity Seed project over children's bones.

Cross and Sampson save Durand from being buried alive in Iowa. When the FBI decides not to charge him, Cross takes the evidence to a senator, who exposes Durand. Arrested for going rogue, Cross can't be punished, but he turns down a promotion and a medal and hands in his gun and badge.

In James Patterson's books, starting with Along Came a Spider (1993), Cross has a Ph.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins, works for D.C. police and later the FBI, and was raised by Nana Mama from age 10. The main series now runs past 35 novels.