The Knight by Steven James

Patrick Bowers is in his home state of Colorado trying to locate a serial killer that likes to depict stories in his killings. Several people have died and it looks like Pat is on the killers list to play a leading roll.

At the same time he is working the case in Colorado Patrick is having to fly back to Chicago to testify in the retrial of one of his most infamous foes. Richard Devin Basque was one of the first serial killers that Patrick put away. Unfortunately Pat made a mistake while arresting Basque and now Basque's lawyer is going to use that against him to get Basque out of prison.

Of course Patrick can't have all of that going on in his life without having some major issues with his step-daughter Tessa thrown into the mix! While packing for their move to D.C. Tessa discovers a shoebox filled with memento's of her mother. One of the things in the box is a key to her mother's diary. Tessa insists on reading it in the hopes of finding out who her real father is.

As always, this Patrick Bowers novel is filled with action and killing and mayhem. Lien hua and Patrick are having issues so enter another law-enforcement woman to step in to Lien hua's place. Cheyenne is tough, witty and beautiful. She has asked Patrick out before, but the timing was never right. I like their banter back and forth, but Patrick isn't over Lien hua yet so there are several awkward moments between them. Once again Tessa irritates the snot out of me! To me she acts more like a 14 year old rather than an almost 18 year old. But even though she irritates there is a brokenness about her that captures a persons heart. She really is just a lost young woman. But grrrr! She knows how to manipulate adults feelings and get her way. It will be interesting to see if she can locate her real father, I wonder where that will put her and Patrick's relationship? Patrick's FBI friend Ralph is back in this book as well and he cracks me up! His new obsession is yogurt covered raisins and he eats them by the handful. Yup, that catches up with him! There are run-ins with rattlesnakes that creeped me out much more than the descriptions of the killings! Patrick has ticked off a whole lot of bad guys and I can't wait to start the next book to see who goes after him next!