Customer Reviews

I, Alex Cross

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

Alex Cross has just been notified that a distant family member has been murdered. As he looks into the details of the gruesome death, he finds connections to even more killings and mysterious disappearances. Soon the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place and all signs seem to point to a killer within the White House. Alex Cross has faced his fair share of foes, but never has he gone against a killer who is as untouchable as this madman. Never one to give up, Alex Cross holds nothing back in his quest for justice.

James Patterson brings back his most beloved character in this sixteenth installment of the Alex Cross series. Long time fans will be pleased to know that this latest installment falls much closer to home than recent attempts. Patterson has certainly put Cross through the ringer with countless relationship problems, a myriad of career changes, and even a poorly imagined international romp in Cross Country. This time around we are treated to what hooked us on these novels in the first place: great mystery, strong character development, and the relentless pacing that has become the trademark of Patterson's writing.

While I enjoyed the high profile mystery in this plot, what really sold me were the relationships that are so beautifully explored with the characters we have grown to love. There are some truly heartwarming and gut wrenching scenes that might just catch you off guard, if for no other reason than the glimpse into the eventual reality for Alex that they hint at. Mushy stuff aside, there is still plenty of action and suspense to go around for thrill seekers to devour.

It should come as no surprise to returning readers that this story is peppered with bad language, sexual content, and violence throughout. Readers searching for some "light" mystery reading should keep on searching. However, if you long for a raw, engrossing thriller that will keep you churning pages long into the night, then I, Alex Cross is certainly for you.

Don't mess with Detective Alex Cross, especially when it comes to his family members. With one family member murdered, and another in the hospital fighting for their life, Cross sets out to help solve a very personal murder case--a series of brutal murders that, not only involve his niece, but will take him to the top echelons of the US government. James Patterson brings to the table, once again, all of his previous masterful talent and bold imagination. Although, some passages may disturb the squeamish, I was held captive throughout the entire book. I especially like the surprise ending. This may be one of Patterson's best efforts yet.

The thriller is written in short chapters, which I like, and the font is large enough to make reading enjoyable. The prose is clear, succinct, and paints a picture of full-blown evil and terror. A fast read.

I am a huge, huge Alex Cross/James Patterson fan! and I was thrilled beyond belief to read this newest "Alex Cross" book.

The story opens with Alex celebrating a birthday at home with his family and girlfriend Bree (this is something I never quite understood - the need for the author go ALWAYS give Cross a girlfriend). Unfortunately, Alex gets "one of those calls" during his party and finds out that his niece (daughter of a brother he had not be close to in adulthood) has been found dead. When Alex arrives at the scene, he is told that they only have "remains", that his niece was actually killed and then put through a grinder of sorts - Alex is stunned and vows to find the killer.

As it turns out, Alex's niece was a high price call girl who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time - meeting the wrong person. We discover that Alex's niece worked for a high end and exclusive brothel, located in an out of the way location and managed by a man without a conscience.

In the midst of all this, Alex's beloved Nana falls very ill and must be rushed to the hospital. Alex now finds himself torn between being at his Nana's side AND finding his niece's killer.

Alex will spend much of the storyline playing catch up. It seems that although he does have some leads, the killer is always one step ahead, somehow untouchable and as the storyline develops we will soon find out why this killer is so protected.

This book is good and the suspense is pretty consistent. I like that Alex does not miraculously get all the answers quickly in this one and I like that he is highly conflicted for the most part. This is well written - using Patterson's usual quick and easy chapters. Alex is well written and for fans of Alex Cross, this one makes me feel as though I understand him just a little bit more than the last book.

What does not work for me is the emphasis on Nana in all of the books, but particularly this one. I mean, Alex seems surprised when Nana gets ill and may die - all I can say is "Alex, she is 90!!!! maybe its time you came to realize that she will not live forever". I find that Alex's constant protecting and worrying about Nana is getting a little old. I can truly understand the importance she has for him, but this book is 50% about her and frankly, it got a little boring after a while. I keep trying to figure out why Patterson feels the need to always give Cross a crutch (he calls it family support, but it does not feel that way to me). Between his Nana and his round of girlfriends, Alex does not seem to be able to rely on himself for anything!

Still, this book is about the main storyline of mayhew and murder and, as always, Patterson does a great job! I have to say that the "discovering of the murderer" was a tad of a letdown - after building up the story - Patterson just kind of announces who the murderer is (I never suspected until the very end) and that's it. There is no huge confrontations between Cross and the murderer and it felt a little flat.

I still love Patterson and Alex Cross and this book is well written and is a thrilling read. I am still not sure why Patterson chose to call this one I, Alex Cross, but who cares? Its an Alex Cross book and I am thankful.

Well I must admit that I was initially apprehensive about paying so much money for a James Patterson book after the horrible Cross Country (Alex Cross) where Alex Cross goes to Africa. In fact, not only did I write a scathing review of that book, but I seriously spent about 10 minutes trying to decide if I wanted to risk my money on this latest Alex Cross novel.

However, I decide I would go ahead and risk it. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, I was absolutely delighted with the story and thrilled that Patterson was back in form with good fast paced writing that kept the pages turning with nary a single thought of putting the book down. Although admittedly I did a time or two in order to try and get some sleep, but it didn't work so I finished the book in one sitting.

I especially liked the cameo appearance (so to speak) of another Patterson character in the Alex Cross novels and I am hoping that he will be a major player in an upcoming Alex Cross novel. Every Superman needs their Lex Luthor and this character is definitely that. And no, I am not going to give away the suprise ending.

The basic plot of the story is that a loose family member (no pun intended, which you will understand within the first 30 pages or so) is found murdered and Alex Cross begins a perilous journey to find the family members killer or killers. Quite an interesting background of characters that I thought was rather well done, although I wondered just how realistic a couple of them really would have been.

I am not going to give away any more than that, but it should be sufficient for me to say that being a HUGE Alex Cross/Patterson fan has me believing once again in the writing of this terrific author who needs to stick to solo projects and an already proven recipe for great stories and characters.

Please, no more books like Cross Country (Alex Cross)!

Shawn Kovacich
Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

I haven't read Patterson in a while now (few years) but with my new Kindle, decided to jump back into his writing. I'll keep this short, especially since I'm not one for writing reviews.

Bottom line: this book is terrible. The plot, which intrigues at first, quickly becomes tiresome. The additional "filler" as one reviewer put it, is exactly that: you could remove the entire Nana thread cutting the book by a third and still end up with the same character development and ending.

The end is (not a spoiler) just flat out worthless. I actually read the few remaining pages of the next book (advertised at the end of this book) hoping that I would receive something else - anything else - to appease my disappointment, unfortunately no luck.

Seems like this book was quickly "manufactured" using Patterson's name as the only means of selling copies.

You can definitely find much better books for the same price or better.

I, Alex Cross begins with Cross getting a disturbing call during his birthday. Apprantly, his niece was thrown through a wood-chipper and her remains stuffed into a bag inside the back of a car. As he begins to investigate, he starts to learn of her dark past while tracking down a killer that may be to much for him to handle because of his power.

The murder investigation, assuming you could even find it buried beneath the medical drama with Nana Mama, but ill get back to that, was never really a mystery to begin with. The entire time it consisted of Cross being pointed down a line to the conclusion by everyone as they gave him everything he needed without any real investigation going on. I want to see Cross do his work, not have his hand held the entire time. Zues, the killer, was not interesting at all. We barely hear of him, see him twice the entire book, and never had any motive behind what he did. He was just a sick man who screwed up one day. It was also obvious as to who it was considering the name he chose. Plus having the entire plot revolve around escorts was never interesting at all. How many times do we have to hear about impossibly beautiful women being naked through this book? It was there for bad shock value and nothing more.

The time spent with Nana Mama were pointless and just boring. If you cut out every time Cross spends talking to her, over half of the book would be gone and we would still end up with the same conclusion without missing anything. I absolutely hate Nana Mama and I was praying that she would finally die by the end of the book, but its obvious that she wasnt going to, despite her being over 90 and constantly in a coma. Please Patterson, kill her off already.

The other characters, namely Cross' family and Sampson, were non-existant and didnt act the way they should be. The kids are nearing graduation from highschool and yet they all acted like they were 8 year olds. Bree was hardly around and never really did anything aside from cooking and looking over Nana Mama. Since those parts were pointless, her part in this book was pointless too aside from the ending. Sampson, like in the previous book, acted like a hired thug that only talked when he needed too. Instead of him saying or doing anything, it was always Cross that told us what he said or did. I dont care to hear it from him, I want to know what Sampson is thinking. I want Sampson to talk for himself.

On a side note, the arrogance of Patterson is arguably at his worst here. In the interview on the book near the top of the product page, he bashes late-author Tony Hillerman. And in this book, he deems the humor of Jon Stewart and everything related to The Daily Show to be "droll humor." While I cant say much about Hillerman, as I have never read his books, its just insulting to everyone for him to kick a probably good author when hes dead. Im sure he atleast Hillerman had talent and morals compared to JP. Not to mention, The Daily Show and Jon Stewart are both great, so its obvious that Patterson would not know humor or again real talent if it smacked him the face.

In conclusion, this book was bad. No mystery, a bad and obvious villian, pointless medical drama thrown in, with characters that were not themselves. The only redeeming quality of the book was that it was a vast improvement over Cross Country in terms of being able to read. Even then, thats not saying much. Skip this book.

The title to this should be changed to something like...."My life with Nana"...if I had wanted to read a tome about how his grandmother slips in and out of a coma or the hospital I could have chosen some other author......alternating chapters about the actual murder investigation and how 'spunky' his grandmother is about wanting to leave the hospital is not my idea of a mystery novel. Was he just doing this for filler or does he believe this is what we want to read? This one reminds me of the Cosby show mixed with Dragnet........not up to Patterson's standards in my opinion...not that anyone cares about my opinion.

I have to say, I am very happy that Mr. Patterson seems to have his mojo back! I have not enjoyed his forays in "partnering" with other authors and his off subject books. I loved this story and couldn't put it down. I was totally caught up in the main story of who the murderer was, but had it figured out pretty much mid-way through. The characters were wonderful and I was very worried about Nana! When I worry about the health of a fictional character, I know it's a good read!

Welcome back Mr. Patterson.

I imagine that one of the most often asked question of an author was posed to Margaret Mitchell who wrote Gone with the Wind. I imagine the questions went something like, "Why didn't you ever write another book?" And to that I am sure Ms. Mitchell had many answers the least of one I imagine was, "When you write one great novel, that's enough." Well, I'm not sure it was enough in Ms Mitchell's case but I do think that there are some authors who keep writing and writing and what was once exciting and spellbinding is now most tedious. Among the authors I once loved and no longer read is Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts. But one by one I passed up reading their books and I am just about to do the same with James Patterson's newest book, I, Alex Cross. And I must say that the Alex Cross series was the one Patterson books I thought I would always read.

The problem I had with this book sis that despite Alex being the same old Alex, the plot left me scratching my head. First Patterson has Alex's niece who was part of an eascort service brutally murdered and I don't recall her ever being mentioned let along Alex's brother who died from drugs. Then there is a White House cover - up and the one who did the dirty deed was almosty plucked from the air which left anybody wondering who did it again scratching their head. And then in the midst of all of this Patterson still had time to include the softer side of Alex caring for his elderly grandmother and professing his love to his children and lover. It was just a bit too much for me although the last page was intriguing with aphone call from Cross;s long time nemesis Kyle sending his best wishes to Alex and his family.
So now I wonder if Kyle will be featured in the next Cross book and will I be tempted to read another Patterson novel.

Sometimes a good thing isn't so good anymoer and since I never finished Swinsuit and didn't feel guilty about it, I looked forward to reading this book and raving about it they way I once raved about his first Cross book Along Came a Spider. It might be easy enough for Patterson to churn out this series, the women's series, the cop wuth 10 children series, his children series and even his romance novels. But it's another thing for one of his loyal readers to stick around. So, unless there is a dramatic change in Patterson's mysteries I'm sticking with Sara Paretsky's books along with Daniel Silva and Jacqueline Winspear.-

In the past few months I have read three of James Patterson's novels: Swimsuit, Alex Cross's Trial, and The Murder of King Tut. I, Alex Cross easily tops all three. It's skillfully written, suspenseful, and even includes a few funny zingers.

Detective Alex Cross's niece, Caroline, is murdered. He learns of her death during his birthday party as his family gathered to express their deep affection for him. Cross spearheads the murder investigation. His family comes together to support him in this difficult time. A key theme in the novel is the importance of family.

A pivotal figure is known as Zeus. This Zeus does not live on Mount Olympus. He's a very wealthy and powerful man who frequents a "gentlemen's club" in Virginia, just outside of Washington. The club caters to rich people with bizarre tastes. It seems that Zeus is a violent man...

When it rains it pours. Cross's beloved grandmother, Nana, suffers from congestive heart failure. Her condition worsens until she is near death. Cross is overcome with concern, but he must press on with the search for Caroline's killer. As he visits a comatose Nana in the hospital, he is inspired by memories of her advice through the years.

There are vicious people in this book who use their wealth and influence to cover up their crimes. There's a wood chipper that is used in a manner not intended by its manufacturer.

Veteran author Patterson weaves these disparate elements together. It all builds to an exciting conclusion. The shocking identity of Zeus is finally revealed. Highly recommended.