Step on a Crack [Paperback]

James Patterson (Author), Michael Ledwidge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2008

During a state funeral for a beloved former First Lady in New York City's largest cathedral, the unthinkable occurs. Armed men disguised as monks seize the church and seal themselves inside, along with more than one hundred of the most powerful people in America. The captives include world leaders, actors, TV stars, athletes, and politicians, and the kidnappers are armed with enough C4 explosives to blow a crater in the middle of Manhattan.
NYPD officer Michael Bennett is pulled into the standoff as lead negotiator. Despite the escalating danger, Michael faces an even more terrifying crisis at home. His wife has been diagnosed with a devastating disease, and Michael faces the prospect of losing the love of his life and having to raise their ten children alone. With his own life teetering and the lives of thousands suddenly his responsibility, Michael struggles to diffuse the tense situation fast. Yet the kidnappers' moves are impossible to predict, and they block every attempt to break into the cathedralmost as if they are privy to their deliberations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pop a bowl of popcorn, settle into a comfy chair and you might finish this combination thriller and tearjerker before the popcorn. Bestseller Patterson (Cross) and Ledwidge (The Narrowback) spin a fantastic tale of an audacious mass kidnapping and the unlikely detective thrust into the primary role of negotiator, sleuth and hero. Michael Bennett, a senior NYPD homicide detective, has a wife dying of cancer and 10 adopted children of various ethnic origins. When St. Patrick's Cathedral, site of the celebrity-packed funeral of a former first lady, is seized by a dozen ruthless men, Bennett ends up as point man for the hastily assembled negotiating team. From then on, the tale requires the reader to go with the flow as Bennett alternates visits to his wife's hospital bedside, brief trips to check on how his kids are managing and tense dealings with the well-prepared kidnappers. Short on credibility on the crime front, long on sentimentality on the home front, this book would be a good candidate for adaptation as a one-hour TV movie. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Patterson and Ledwidge introduce a new hero in an exciting thriller set in the heart of Manhattan. NYPD detective Michael Bennett is concentrating on getting his family through a particularly difficult Christmas: he and his 10 adopted children are facing the loss to cancer of his brave wife, Maeve. But a major crisis calls him away: the funeral of a former First Lady at St. Patrick's Cathedral goes horribly awry when men storm the church and take hundreds of attendees hostage. Michael is asked to try to reason with a sinister man named Jack. Jack releases all but the most famous people, and makes his demands: he wants several million dollars from each celebrity hostage, including the mayor, a popular comedic actor, a beloved talk show host, and a pop starlet. Once Jack starts killing, Michael realizes he's up against a truly diabolical foe. Patterson has a knack for creating genuinely likable heroes, and Michael fits the bill. As readers rapidly turn the pages to learn how the tense hostage drama plays out, they will also be sympathizing with Michael as he faces the agonizing loss of his wife. Totally gripping and downright impossible to put down, this is a promising start to a potential new series. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446581933
• ISBN-13: 978-0446581936
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (232 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,013,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

James Patterson...


* James Patterson holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 63 New York Times bestselling titles.

* JP has sold more than 220 million books worldwide. And considering pass-along and libraries, it's safe to say many more people than that have read a Patterson!

* In 2010, JP was named by kids everywhere the Children's Book Councils' Children's Choice Book Awards "Author of the Year" in 2010. More than 15,000 kid and teen readers voted for JP in a category he shared with Suzanne Collins, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Kinney, and Rick Riordan. His Witch and Wizard series saw the biggest launch of a series for young readers ever, surpassing sales of first installments of Twilight, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians.

* JP has grossed over 3 billion dollars in worldwide sales. This is larger than the worldwide theatrical gross of Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time.

* JP has had 43 New York Times hardcover #1 bestselling novels, also a publishing industry record.

* Last year, JP has sold more books than John Grisham, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King combined (source: Nielsen BookScan).

* JP properties are gaining wide interest amongst film and TV producers. JP's award-winning series for young readers, Maximum Ride, is currently with Avi Arad (Spiderman, Iron Man) and Universal Pictures. Lloyd Levin (Green Zone, Watchmen) is attached to produce a feature film adaptation of JP's newest young readers series, Witch and Wizard, and James Patterson Entertainment is set to produce the next Alex Cross film, I, Alex Cross which will feature Idris Elba (The Wire, The Losers) as Alex Cross. And, a television adaptation of JP's 2007 love story Sundays At Tiffanys aired in December 2010 starring Alyssa Milano and Eric Winter.

* JP's books are licensed in 43 countries worldwide, and are in print and actively sold in 100 countries.

* According to a 2010 Bowker Sisters in Crime Survey, JP is the favorite mystery writer amongst readers under 50...AND over 50! Survey respondents comprised American men, women and teens who bought at least one mystery fiction title in 2009 and/or 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-Paced and Oh So Much Fun, September 6, 2008

By 

Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Step on a Crack (Hardcover)

Former President Stephen Hopkins and his wife Ann are out celebrating Christmas as they do every year, having dinner at L'Arene, a trendy New York restaurant, when Ann falls unconscious. She had been poisoned by the Neat Man, a character who knows she has a peanut allergy and takes advantage of this for his own nefarious reason by doctoring her fois gras. The former first lady dies.

The rich, famous and powerful come from all over the world to her funeral at St. Patrick's and some hooded monks take them all hostage. They weren't monks at all and they take their orders from the Neat Man. What do they want? Ransom, of course, lots of it.

NYPD detective Michael Bennett has some problems. His wife is dying of cancer and she's about to leave him with ten adopted children to raise alone. He needs to be by her side, but the hostages need him to negotiate them out of St. Pat's. To say he's conflicted would be an understatement.

Who is the Neat Man? Can Bennett get the hostages out alive? Will some die? All will be answered if you pick up this fast-paced thriller. Again Patterson is writing with another. He just keeps churning them out and I keep reading them. Are his books over the top? Sure, but this one, like his others, is just oh so much fun.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

44 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Patterson keeps cashing in!, February 16, 2007

By 

Bill Pullman "Book reviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Step on a Crack (Hardcover)

This was my second Patterson novel, my first was the disappointing "5th Horseman." I don't really understand this author's best selling status? Don't get me wrong, they do have certain trashy appeal, and can be finished during a short plane ride or afternoon at the beach, but there is not much to sink your teeth into, even for the thriller genre (I'm not asking for "War and Peace").

Mike Bennett is an over worked hostage negotiator for NYPD, with a wife dying of cancer and 10 adopted kids. Like he does not have enough on his plate he is thrust into hostage crisis at Saint Pat's Cathedral. An important funeral is interrupted by kidnappers who want millions or a bunch of VIPs are going to be wacked. Bennett manages to deal with the ruthless killers, while spending time with his dying wife, and also keep track of his ten children, and all in a two page chapter! Ok, I am being sarcastic, those who like Patterson's style will probably be happy with this book, and I can't totally trash it as I did finish it and was curious as to how things would turn out. However, I really felt like I was reading a movie script.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Identifiable formula for a successful Patterson book, but..., February 10, 2007

By 

R Schmidt (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Step on a Crack (Hardcover)

First the good news: Alex Cross is not in this book. I was looking for a fresh approach to Patterson's stories, and this one had that potential. It's not that Cross was a bad or inappropriate character... it was just time for somebody else to step up to the plate. In Step on a Crack, it is NYPD Homicide Detective Michael Bennett, with his 10 adopted kids, his terminally ill wife, and the biggest case of his career. He's not quite another Job (that's the biblical Job, not the work job), but let's just agree that he has many, many things going on in his life at the same time. Bennett's faith obviously is being tested.

Now the bad news. You can finish this book in about two hours. The large font (hey, I didn't need my reading glasses... what does that say about his reader's demographics?), hefty margins, and lots of space to take notes (okay, I'm being facetious) all mean that it doesn't feel like a full-length novel. Harry Potter 7 is coming out this summer. It will take hours and hours to read over a period of days. This novel is... reading-lite. It seems to be a reoccurring theme for Paterson's novels. Maybe it only bothers me, but here's what it led to: I started it, and finished it, in the bookstore before I could even buy it... super, super saver!

NYPD Homicide Detective Michael Bennett was a nice guy, like Alex Cross. I hope Patterson bases his characters on real cops. I would guess police work is 80% tedium, 19% action, and 1% terror. Patterson focuses on the intersection of tedium and terror; this is his forte.

I look forward to a Patterson novel that has real meat. Sadly, Step on a Crack was diet food for the mind.