"I, Alex Cross"

by James Patterson



For beginners, they are celebrating Alex' birthday in the opening chapter, but as usual are interrupted with the phone call they always dread...Work! Alex and his long time girlfriend Detective Briana Stone along with his kids Ali and Jannie (who live at home), and the ever faithful Nana (who has a heart attack in this text) are welcomed back. The call he receives becomes personal as Alex finds out that a killer has got to one of his own. His niece (whom he finds out was a high-end hooker) has been murdered and they want him in on the case. He throws himself into the case head first and discovers that this serial killer won't be so easy to catch. This is no ordinary serial killer and Alex soon discovers that the whole case is wrapped up with some high rollers who are protected by those around them. That means breaking the rules and doing what needs to be done to catch the killer. Alex realises that to do his job he has to trust nobody and do things his own way. This becomes a bit corny after a bit. The ending is VERY far-fetched and poorly developed, IMHO.
I have on a few occasions' wondered if what James Patterson was doing to the quality of his own work, due to the sheer volume of novels he seems to produce or complete with a co-author. My opinion has been in the past that his novels (especially the Cross ones) seem to decline the more books he produces. This book showed me glimpses of some of the great work that he has produced in the past, however still left me undecided as to whether his work is back to its usual quality. Frankly, I was very disappointed. I really used to like the Cross novels but this one wasn't the page-turner his earlier ones were.

Reviewed by Nan Sevic