I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Alex Cross is a police detective who has a degree in psychology and is involved in a lot of the major cases. His cases usually revolve around serial killers and his life has been endangered on more than one occasion. In fact, some would say he's the luckiest man alive! Alex's life doesn't just revolve around work and he has a family to take care of. At the time of this book, he has his daughter Jannie and sons Damon and Alex. Sadly his wife, Maria, was gunned down and died in his arms so Alex has the help of Nana to bring up his children. Alex is constantly juggling work with his family in order to get the perfect balance, but he can't seem to let these big cases go, no matter how many times he resigns.

Alex Cross has never managed to find the perfect balance between family life and his big serial cases but this time he's determined to put his family life first. He's managed to find a woman he loves in the form of Bree who has more than settled in to family life. It's his birthday and they're about to cut the cake when the house phone rings - not his pager or his mobile so he assumes it isn't work and answers it.

Time for the devastating news that his niece has been brutally murdered and her "remains" have been found. "Remains"? A harsh way to describe a body of such a beautiful young woman but Cross can't give up this case, after all it's family. Cross begins his trail and is soon uncovering evidence that points to the impossible. Could it really be? What secret has Cross uncovered that will rock the entire world? Will the secret be out or will Cross finally meet his match?

Some Thoughts

I, Alex Cross is a fantastic title for this book as it totally centers around him. His books usually include a character or two or pages from the killer without revealing the identity but this one seemed to have very little of that. There were a few pages from people at the White House but for some reason my brain couldn't figure out who was who and I kept having to refer back to the start of the book. This could have been sheer tiredness on my part or it could have been confusing on purpose, I just don't know.

Patterson has still included Alex's family in the book and you quite simply couldn't have the same book without it. There's a slight change in the family this time though as one of them battles for their life. What will Cross do? Someone he loves is possibly dying but his niece is already dead. Who do you get justice for? Any normal man would probably sit at the hospital bed day and night but Cross doesn't have that in his nature and instead combines the two. But can he possibly do that?

With so much going on his life it starts to get even more complicated. The FBI are shutting him out and people are trying to take his case away - why? Then comes the mysterious call from the White House that alerts Alex Cross even more to the possibilities of what he has uncovered. Sounds thrilling right? Well, I found myself disappointed as the big killer scenes that Patterson is renowned for were missing. There were no real big chases and I never actually felt that Cross' life was at risk. Definitely a disappointment for me as I love that danger feeling that Patterson usually manages to put in his book. It's a slightly different feeling this time of a cover up of something that would change the entire world. It felt as if he wanted to get away from the murder mystery genre and explore the conspiracy thriller. 

His style of writing stayed the same throughout this one though with his short chapters that make you keep on reading when really you should put the book down and get back into real life. It took about 3 hours to read the book with a little break in between as I kept looking for the real excitement to start. Was it similar to other story lines? Not really. Repetitive in parts? Not at all. Something I'd read again? Definitely!

Whilst I've described feeling slightly let down by the book this time round, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Cross' emotions came out more than ever with his family member in danger and the case of his nieces murder to solve. My only real criticism is that the amount of usual danger was missing and it did leave me feeling a bit disappointed. Little warning if you intend to read this - it can be graphic at times so be prepared!! So if your looking for a fun weekend read, this is a good one for you.

ISBN 9780316018784