Kyle Craig

Kyle Craig is a character in James Patterson's series of novels featuring Washington, D.C. detective Alex Cross. Craig, a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is initially a close friend of Cross and assists the detective in his high-profile investigations, and also occasionally asks Cross for help in his own. However, in the 2001 novel "Violets Are Blue", Craig is revealed to be a sadistic criminal who calls himself "The Mastermind", having organized a series of brutal bank robberies and murders. He is eventually brought to justice by Cross for his crimes. From "Violets Are Blue" onwards, Craig has been one of Cross' most formidable adversaries. In the film adaptations of Patterson's novels "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider", Craig is played by Jay O. Sanders.

Role in the Novels

"Roses Are Red"

Note: In this novel, it is not made clear that Kyle Craig is the Mastermind.

At the beginning of the 2000 novel "Roses Are Red", Craig, using the alias "The Mastermind", formulates the robbery of a Citibank with two associates, Errol and Brianne Parker. Over the course of the robbery, while Brianne holds the bank manager and an employee hostage, she reveals that Errol is also holding the manager's family hostage and will kill them all if Brianne doesn't leave the bank by a certain time. Brianne manages to leave the bank with the loot as planned, but she neglects to call Errol, who in turn kills the manager's family anyway. Craig, as the Mastermind, later visits the Parkers at their secluded hideout. He brings pizza and wine to celebrate the "perfect crime", but the items turn out have been poisoned by Craig in a successful attempt to kill the Parkers. After they die, Craig offers a toast to "perfect crimes". It is stated later that Brianne was raped by Craig post-mortem. Cross, investigating the robbery, later finds the Parkers' decomposing remains and informs Craig, unaware of his role in murdering them.

On the same morning that Cross finds the Parkers' bodies, Craig hires a new, more professional robbery crew, who are referred to only by codenames: Mr. Red, Mr. White, Mr. Blue, and Mrs. Green. This new crew robs a First Union bank and, same as before, holds the manager's family hostage, only this time Mr. Red and Mr. White produce a videotape to prove they are not bluffing. Mr. Blue threatens to kill the entire family if the police are somehow notified of the unfolding robbery. When he hears an alert on a police scanner regarding the robbery, Mr. Blue keeps his word, but kills everyone in the bank instead; the manager's family is later released. It is later revealed that Craig had intended for the bank's staff to be killed no matter what the robbery's outcome was, and that it was he who tipped off the police about the robbery. Meanwhile, Craig teams up with Cross and several of his fellow FBI agents to carry out his own manhunt. He later visits the gruesome crime scene at the First Union bank with Cross.

Later that day, Craig and Cross make it to the scene of another bank robbery, only this time, neither the bank's staff nor the manager's family has been harmed. While Cross and Craig are at the family's house, the FBI agent watches the detective, considering Cross as his main opponent.

"Double Cross"

At the beginning of the 2007 novel "Double Cross", Craig is at ADX Florence in Colorado, where he is awaiting his execution. Despite the next-to-impossible chances of his ever breaking out of the supermaximum-security prison, Craig has begun to hatch an elaborate escape plan over time with his loyal attorney, Mason Wainwright. While Craig and Wainwright are having one of their regular meetings in the prison -- which are not monitored due to attorney-client privilege -- Craig and Wainwright swap clothes and give each other prosthetic masks bearing their likenesses. Craig, having assumed Wainwright's identity, manages to leave the prison with ease and drive away in the lawyer's car. Wainwright, now bearing Craig's likeness, goes to his client's cell and hangs himself. However, the ruse is quickly discovered following Wainwright's death, and prison officials warn Cross, who by now has started a private psychiatry practice in Washington after his own brief career with the FBI.

Upon his depature from prison, Craig travels to his family's vacation home in Aspen, using another prostheic mask to disguise himself as his dead father. He visits his mother and terrorizes her, forcing her to let him gain access to the Craig family's overseas bank accounts before finally murdering her, as revenge for her not doing enough to protect him from his father as a child. He then sets out on a journey across the United States and the world, in an effort to enjoy his newly gained freedom. He stops in Iowa City, Chicago, Illinois, and Paris, France, where he meets three separate women and violently kills them, sexually violating at least two of the bodies. He also leaves two clues at almost every murder scene, one of them being an unsigned Hallmark card, imitating a clue from the first murder of the D.C. Audience Killer, or "DCAK", a serial killer who murders his victims in public settings full of people. Craig has been in regularly e-mailing DCAK, praising him for his work, though Craig actually looks down on him as an inferior amateur.

After his visit to Paris, Craig returns to Washington, where he murders Judge Nina Wolff, who presided over his trial and sentenced him to death. He then has a pre-arranged meeting with DCAK in front of Cross' Washington home. DCAK, along with his sister and accomplice, had been posing as patients at Cross' practice even as he was helping investigate the DCAK case. Thw two killers had just previously managed to capture Cross' old partner, John Sampson. Cross and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, manage to track down DCAK at his basement hideout in Washington, where they confront DCAK, eventually overpowering and killing his sister, and saving Sampson. After giving chase to DCAK, Cross and the killer find themselves fighting with knives in an alley. Craig makes an appearance, coaching DCAK on how to attack Cross, but soon pulls out a gun, severely wounding DCAK.