Patrick is set to testify at the trial of a serial killer he caught several years ago.Patrick broke the killer's jaw during the interrogation. Just as he is faced with the decision to tell the truth about the incident or not, the father of one of the victims tries to kill the defendant, causing a delay in the trial, sending Patrick back to Denver where he is about to embark on an investigation that is more complex than anything he has done before.

Denver police have found the body of a young woman in a mine holding a heart to her chest with a tape in her mouth that speaks directly to Patrick. As Patrick and his colleagues begin to investigate this death, they find a string of other equally, if not more, gruesome deaths that somehow seem familiar.

As Patrick uses his controversial geoprofiling to help solve the crimes, a strange pattern emerges; he and his colleagues realize the murderer is acting out a series on medieval tales of relationships that end in particularly gruesome deaths for both people involved. As Patrick tries to stay one step ahead of a murderer, find a commonality between victims and, hopefully, save some of them, he doesn’t realize that Giovanni, as he is known, is saving Patrick for his final victim.

There are some very interesting characters and relationships in The Knight, beginning with Patrick Bowers and his dwindling relationship with fellow FBI agent Lien-hua Jiang, his possible burgeoning relationship with Denver area officer Cheyanne, and his relationship with his stepdaughter Tessa. Tessa has found a box of her dead mother’s memories, including the key to a diary that may help her find her father.

There is a little unevenness in the plot as Patrick travels back and forth between Chicago and Denver and the two cases that he thinks may be connected. The crimes are clever, and the connection to the old text is an interesting twist. Readers may find many graphic and disturbing scenes in the book although the scenes are written in such a way that Giovanni explains the gruesome nature of what is about to occur, or Patrick describes what has occurred, and readers are never actually witnesses to the acts themselves.

A well-paced, tense plot moves along for the most part, though after several false guesses, when Patrick finally comes face-to-face with Giovanni, there is no “aha” moment as readers think back to when they should have realized who he was. This Christian fiction thriller is the third book in the Patrick Bowers series and should please readers who are not faint hearted.

--Jennifer Monahan WinberryE