A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled serial killer who specializes in torture and pain.

Picasso: Confucius said, "when setting off on a path of revenge, dig two graves."
Alex Cross: That's fine with me as long as you're in one of them.
Thomas Kane: [Talking about Alex Cross] What do you think, we can fool him? This is a guy who can tell you had scrambled eggs for breakfast at a hundred yards.
Alex Cross: [Toward two long-haired and bearded computer techs examining an external hard drive] What do you guys got back there?
Computer Tech #1: The IDE was routed to the BIOS in a weird way, and the cylinder/sector was stored in the CMOS.
Thomas Kane: Yo, yo, yo. Geico Cavemen, what do you say we break that down in English.
Computer Tech #2: We spelunked her email account.
Alex Cross: Are you having fun?
Picasso: [laughs] Fun. Am I having fun? Yes. Yes, I suppose I am. But I think you'd find my hobby boring.
Alex Cross: So your hobby is inflicting pain?
Picasso: Oh, no, no. That's... that's not just a hobby. Inflicting pain is a crucial part of my true calling.
Thomas Kane: You aren't in the game. The game is in you.
Chemist: I want my lawyer.
Alex Cross: I am your lawyer.