A blockbusting new thriller introducing maverick FBI agent Steve Vail. "Move over Jack Reacher, here comes The Bricklayer." James Patterson STEVE VAIL IS A MAVERICK. A trained killer and former agent, Vail despises authority and he's never met a rule he didn't break. These days he's working as a bricklayer. Now, Deputy Kate Bannon of the FBI desperately wants his help. Because someone is killing their operatives - in complex, subtle, twisted ways - and the body count is rising fast. Someone holds a fatal grudge against the agency; someone who knows how it works, and wants a bloody revenge. And it might be an inside job. To stem the tide of murders, Vail must re-enter a world he hoped he left behind long ago - his own past.