I never expected myself to read a book like this: non YA and non fantasy or sci-fi. But I must admit it was really refreshing. James Patterson IS one of the best authors at the moment. He is ‘The World’s No. 1 Bestselling Writer’ so I guess that’s well enough.
This book, Alex Cross, was first published as “Cross” is the Cross series it’s actually #12 but I didn’t know that until I was halfway through the book. So you can say you can just read every book within the series at any given moment. I won this book at bol.com and it’s fair to say I was kinda excited to read this book.
[Includes some small spoilers, but non that are very BIG so no cliffhanger/end/plot-twist spoilers!]
I don’t want to spoil anything, because this book has the craziest twists and turns I’ve ever seen. Patterson created a bad guy, a rapist and a killer, who is so crazy I couldn’t ever wrap my mind around it. He’s full of dark humor but at the same time full of honesty. He hates the world but somehow also loves the world. He needs (wants) to kill people to earn his family’s living. But he also wants to kill because he LIKES it.
The second story line, is, of course, about Alex Cross, the man himself. He’s a sensitive man, job addict and loves his family. One night, when he’s out with his wife, she gets shot and dies in his arms. Determined to catch the killer, he goes on a journey with a dead end.
Years later, he finds a trail and together with his not so honest colleague he chases the bad guys and tries to kill the son of a bitch that killed his wife. He gets in a lot of trouble and he didn’t see the end coming – neither did I.
The whole story is exciting and twisting and mind-fucking, to call it like that. The chapters were short, all with some kind of a cliffhanger. They were all fast – some a bit slower, which was nice – and the story just kept coming at me as a reader. I was ‘Team Cross’ for sure, tho I got some compassion for “Micheal rapist and killer Sullivan”. Just a snitch. And that’s only because his kids and wife didn’t know about his job and I just kept wishing they could be a happy family some day.
I never like books with different point of views, but in this book, it was seriously better. I wouldn’t have read this book through the eyes of Alex Cross the whole time. Or ever Micheal Sullivan: I’d go crazy. So I actually liked all the different point of views very much.
So, to be honest, I liked the book more than I thought. If it wasn’t for the story line, it was for the strong and funny writing of Patterson. He’s one genius writer and if you asked me whether to read one of his book again, I’d say YES.
Dutch Book Chick 