A kidnapper wants infamy. A detective wants the truth. Both will get it.
Who drives the story
A D.C. detective and forensic psychologist—"Doctor Detective"—raising two kids alone after his wife Maria was shot dead. He wants the truth in both cases, and it costs him the woman he loves and a killer's permanent attention.
A teacher-turned-kidnapper with a split personality: Murphy the mild salesman and father, Soneji the predator obsessed with becoming America's most feared criminal. He gets famous, guilty, caught—and still escapes, attacks, and taunts from prison.
The first woman in her Secret Service position, beautiful and haunted by alcoholic parents and a father's suicide. She seduces Cross partly for information, falls in love for real, and pays for the ransom plot with her life.
Cross's towering, loyal partner, present at every turn from the Sanders scene to the White House standoff. He makes the secret recording that convicts Jezzie and pulls the trigger that stops Soneji.
The kidnapped girl whose survival drives the entire investigation. Hidden for two years with a Bolivian family near the Andes, she is the case's one unambiguous mercy.
How they are connected
She seduces Cross partly for information, falls in love for real, and pays for the ransom plot with her life.
Cross's towering, loyal partner, present at every turn from the Sanders scene to the White House standoff.
John SampsonGary Soneji / Gary Murphy
He makes the secret recording that convicts Jezzie and pulls the trigger that stops Soneji.
He makes the secret recording that convicts Jezzie and pulls the trigger that stops Soneji.
Go deeper
Performance as identity · The betrayer inside the walls · Fame as motive · Family as the thing worth saving
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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