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I, Alex Cross

Review

I, Alex Cross

On the cover of I, ALEX CROSS, there is a small but effective
blurb that states: “A beloved Cross family member has been
murdered.” Such a statement is more than enough to bring in
faithful readers of Patterson’s most popular character. When
you open the book, you get more than you bargained for as
you’re smacked from across the top of the flyleaf with this
line: “THE BEST --- AND SCARIEST --- Alex Cross novel since
ALONG CAME A SPIDER.” If you were a fan of Alex Cross at one
time and jumped off the train at some point in the past, I, ALEX
CROSS is the station where you can get back on for a great
ride.

The novel kicks off --- following an enigmatic prologue --- with
Cross in the middle of a birthday party that is interrupted by a
telephone call. The news it relays brings the festivities to an
abrupt end; the remains of a human body discovered that evening
have been identified as belonging to a member of the Cross family.
Cross sets everything aside to investigate the murder and quickly
discovers that this family member had been living a secret life,
one that involves employment in a very exclusive and expensive club
operating under the innocuous name of “Blacksmith
Farms.” There, the very rich and famous of Washington,
D.C.’s elite come to have any and all their needs and desires
satisfied.

Sometimes, those needs and desires for the club’s valued
members can include murder, with Cross’s relative this time
being the unfortunate victim. Soon it appears that he was not the
only employee of the club who has been murdered. Cross, accompanied
by police detective and love of his life Brianna Stone, finds that
the investigation is leading them to the front doors of the
Washington elite. Even worse, the proprietor of Blacksmith Farms
has been engaging in a very lucrative --- and dangerous --- game of
blackmail with the club’s patrons.

Cross is definitely on to something, yet there are almost
invisible barriers that continue popping up and hamstringing his
investigation. Meanwhile, disappearances and murders keep occurring
in and around Washington, D.C. Rather than satisfy an unknown
fiend’s bloodlust, however, these new killings are being
committed to conceal his identity. Cross is in the middle of his
dogged investigation when the unthinkable happens: another of his
family members suddenly becomes seriously ill. Determined not to
lose another relative, Cross finds himself being pulled in two
directions, even as the power elite close ranks around a certain
key political figure who is pulling all the strings.

Patterson has demonstrated time and time again that he is
capable of just about anything, and here he cements his reputation.
Big changes are about to occur in Cross’s life, and, if the
last few paragraphs are any indication, not all of them will be
pleasant ones. That having been said, I, ALEX CROSS contains all of
Patterson’s trademark storytelling elements --- terse prose,
emotional characters and graphic violence --- with some truly
surprising events that will make this volume an especially popular
winner with Patterson fans both new and established.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on January 22, 2011

I, Alex Cross
by James Patterson

  • Publication Date: October 1, 2010
  • Genres: Fiction, Thriller
  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Vision
  • ISBN-10: 0446561967
  • ISBN-13: 9780446561969