Cross

A mafia hit man is going around the world killing people ,and disfiguring them after they die, and them committing a rape in the general area afterwards.He tells the ones he allows to live not to say anything to any one and shows them pictures of people he has cut up , to maintain their silence.
One of these victims talks to Maria Cross, the Doctors wife who is a nurse, but refuses to identify her attacker.
The killer realizes this victim did indeed talk and he kills her and cuts up her face and then he tries to kill Maria Cross.
Dr. Cross, a psychologist now, is brought into the case when the killer goes into his home to kill his wife, but leaves after talking with him for a couple of minutes. Maris is killed later that day.
Dr. Cross becomes a consultant on the case and follows leads all around the D.C. area.
Excellent story line and attention to detail, as is common with this writer. A great book in the series of Dr. Alex Cross.

I did not find this story as interesting as previous efforts. The killer was not as interesting. The authors take on counseling ethics is hideous, being a counselor myself, and the ending was kind of a rehash from previous stories by this author. How many times can Alex Cross get shot and not die? He may be well over 9 lives once this series is done.

This book is good and entertaining. JP is a master story teller and the Alex Cross saga is brilliant. Having said that, in my humble opinion the book lacks a better development and a better finishing. But that is just me: I like we’ll explained stories, with more details …
But for sure you will have a good time reading this book.

The story begins when Alex Cross’ idyllic life is shattered by the hit man who murders his wife. Cross had been a cop then, and the story jumps ahead to his career move to the FBI, after which an altercation with his grandmother prompts him to change careers again. In the present, Cross is a therapist raising three children with help from Nana Mama, and only occasionally consulting for the Washington PD or the FBI. He gets pulled into the case of a serial rapist only because he believes it’s the same man who murdered his wife. The Butcher was a mafia hit man who had fun mutilating his victims, and the FBI has wanted him for a long time, but he’s like a shadow who leaves no trace of himself. In actuality, he’s been raising a family in the suburbs, occasionally taking a job or venturing into the city to commit a rape or a murder, photographing his grisly deeds to frighten future victims.

The story ambles along following both the lives of Alex Cross and the Butcher, Michael Sullivan. Sullivan is an interesting character, though his family life doesn’t exactly ring true and there are several violent incidents he’d have a tough time explaining to his family that get glossed over and forgotten. Alex Cross is as exciting as oatmeal. The author obviously thinks highly of him, but I found him a bit too much of a great guy. He’s one of those people who can whimsically pick and choose from professional careers, and never utters a misplaced word or commits a dastardly deed. And what a dad! He’s also the hope and salvation of more than one branch of law enforcement because he’s such an incredible detective, but he’s so terribly bland about it, I found myself wishing something bad would happen just to liven things up. Also, in an apparent bid to ensure the book made money even if sales were low, Patterson seems to have worked out a deal with Mercedes, singing the praises of their crossover vehicle several dozen times too often. I half expected to see Mercedes in the acknowledgements, or at least find their logo on the cover.

Though I have read a Women’s Murder Club book by Patterson and liked it a lot, that same feeling did not translate to this book. Not only was the change between points of view jarring, Alex Cross is a snore. He’s easily the most vanilla lead character I’ve come across in a long time. Patterson has quite a following, and some of his books are good, but this one fell far short of impressing me.

The James Patterson books that I’ve read are super quick reads. Lot’s of chapters with lots of white-space between each chapter. A great, down-to-earth writing style that any ‘normal’ person can relate to. And most importantly: lots of action.

It’s no wonder every writer under the sun is trying to get Patterson to attach his name to their own novels. Man, I think that there were four titles on the rack of popular books at the airport this week that had James Patterson’s name on the cover either by himself or with a co-writer.

So is all this ‘writing’ burning the guy out? Because while Cross had the traits that I mentioned earlier, the story was not quite as well put together as what I was used to from Patterson.

It’s actually been a while since I sat down with one of Patterson’s Alex Cross stories (2003’s

The Big Bad Wolf

). So for Cross, I was a little rusty on some of the lead protagonist’s background. Hence, when Patterson started jumping around in timeframes in Cross, I found it confusing. One minute in the early stages of the book we’re back like over 10 years ago, the next minute were in the present day. And those time frames would probably be crystal clear to an avid follower of the Alex cross novels, but they were lost on me until I kinda had to put it together myself.

I mean the words were there to distinguish the different time periods, but if you blink, which I apparently did, you might miss the transformation(s).

And then Cross ended so abruptly. The book deals with the hunt for a brutal serial rapist/killer that may have more connections to Alex Cross than he bargained for. Brutal rape/murder after brutal rape murder occur, and at the end of the story you’re screaming for a justice equal to the atrocities that the bad guy has committed. But ultimately what I got just didn’t feel ‘right’. It felt ‘rushed’. Like Patterson needed to get to his next co-write appointment.

So overall, I did get wrapped up and thoroughly engrossed in the story. But I certainly didn’t walk away with that satisfying

Along Came a Spider

or

Kiss the Girls

kind of feeling. Cross did do it’s job however as a companion on a flight with two 4 hour legs and a few hours of down-time on recent holiday.

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