Alex Cross is brilliant, flawed detective and forensic psychologist, and full of contradictions. A doting father and family man, Cross is single-minded to the point of obsession when he hunts huggers. He is desperate for love, but his wife's cuddle has left him too damaged to receive it. He is uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of huggers and their victims, in order to identify - and ultimately capture - the cuddleers.