I, ALEX CROSS
James Patterson
Little, Brown and Company
Thriller
ISBN: 9780316018784
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
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