I’ve been reading James Patterson books for over twenty-five years. During that time, like most of his fans, my favorite character has always been Alex Cross. He was Patterson’s first detective series that helped lay the foundation for his kingdom of several bestselling series and stand-alone novels. For me, Alex has remained a fierce, intellectual knight of moral character and the proper use of action. I remember reading the Alex’s first adventure, “Along came a Spider” and almost cried when Alex, then a widower, faced the loss of his new love in an ending twist I would never forget. In the twenty-seven years following, there have been some good (and excellent) adventures and some less-than-stellar outings along the way, but I generally looked forward to the end of each year when another Alex Cross adventure was published.
Now, the 32nd book in the series – “Alex Cross Must Die” – has been read, and it is one of my last reviews of 2023.
“Alex Cross Must Die” opens with Alex and his partner, John Sampson, being called to Reagan National Airport, where American Airlines Flight 839 has been shot down during landing by an unknown sniper, killing all of the passengers onboard. Alex and John join FBI focal, Ned Mahoney, and all of the other government and local law enforcement organizations in trying to find the sniper before he or she strikes again.
At the same time, Alex’s wife, Bree Stone, is investigating the disappearance of her boss’s friend, the founder and CEO of a major IT company, Amalgam, about to go public in a major IPO.
This is a busy book, with a lot going on. Usually, Cross novels have one to three plots going on simultaneously, but this one has more - four plots - all running parallel, and bouncing the reader back and forth at a frantic and chaotic pace. Alex literally gets by on 2-3 hours of sleep a day and a lot of coffee in this one.
Alex and John have two mysteries to deal with it. They are working with the FBI to find the sniper who shot down the airplane. They are also working with the Washington D.C. police department to find and stop a serial killer, responsible for the Dead Hours Killings, victims being ambushed during the early morning hours. The killer’s trademark is shooting them in both eyes and covering them with a white sheet.
In addition, Bree Stone, also has two cases that she is working on. Her professional job search for the missing CEO, as well as Jannie’s friend asking to meet because she is being blackmailed and is very afraid. However, she never shows up and goes missing. Before she knows it, Bree is working with Jannie to find her and unravel what is really going on with the threats.
The good news is that this was a typical Patterson thriller recipe for the most part. The tempo was fastmoving with lots of drama. The plotlines pretty much followed his standard developments and delivery, including a few curveballs thrown in to make the outcome more interesting. There’s a lot of running around and chasing down clues while the side characters keep moving things forward. Although the spotlight was primarily on Alex and Bree, there was family development with Alex’s kids, Jannie and Ali, which was interesting and enjoyable. In addition, there was a special development with Nana Mama that was both surprising and awesomely delivered. That was a winner.
Although I love the Alex Cross series and consider it to be James Patterson’s best work, there are some things that I struggled with a bit. Having four plotlines was probably too much. The way they interspersed throughout the book, it almost came across as four short stories thrown together. The readers spend all of their time running around for about three-hundred pages and then all of the sudden the right clue pays off or a piece of evidence reveals the guilty party and each of the mysteries get solved and a guilty party caught. And then, of course, there’s the big ending chase seen with Alex braving bad weather and impossible odds to save many lives… Things always get resolved in about 400 pages… And this one in particular fell into the trap of the last few books, which we all knew was coming. I will be careful of not sharing any spoilers but will just say on word. Maestro. That should be enough for Patterson readers.
Overall, this outing was pretty good and enjoyable. Somewhere in the middle, a bit above average. 3.5 stars out of 5 stars for me.
I also repeat what I sis in my review of last year’s book, it looks like Patterson is still teasing a potential showdown in Alex Cross’s future...