Alex Cross, Run

A pair of thrill-seeking killers are on the loose: one stabbing long legged blonde women to death and the other shooting and mutilating male prostitutes. A third killer is publicly humiliating Alex in his role as a blogger and stalking his family for his incidental role in the death of his girlfriend years ago. While his family, including his foster daughter Ava, play a larger role in this novel, both his cop wife Bree and cop best friend John Sampson seem to have become bit players in Patterson's recent templates, which is a shame. Alex is actually suspended for his seemingly unjustified attack on the blogger, but solves the mystery from the sideline.

Based on the world of thriller fiction, one would think that every third person in the United States is a serial killer. It’s an utterly ridiculous notion that is taken to a new level in this poor novel. Since serial killers have become so ho-hum in thriller fiction, James Patterson had to up the ante by having not one, not two, but three serial killers. Obviously one is no longer enough to keep people interested these days.

As ridiculous as this premise may be, the execution was even worse. It became a repetitive snooze fest of people getting killed by the aforementioned killers and Alex Cross coming in to investigate. To break up the monotony, Alex has to deal with some serious family situations as well, and a blogger who is trying show more to destroy his life—and as a great twist the blogger is one of the serial killers. This isn’t a spoiler sine there was no mystery at all in the novel. All three killers are revealed and you get to follow these horribly unrealistic killers as they go about their dastardly deeds. The bottom line is that I read this novel because Patterson has put out some very good fiction in the past. He’s better than this. I would strongly recommend skipping this novel. There are better options.

Carl Alves – author of Conjesero show less

Alex Cross Run first published in 2013 is the twentieth book in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. Once again, this book seems to be suffering from the John McClain syndrome which gets boring and predictable rather fast. But it is slightly better than Merry Christmas, Alex Cross.

Dr Elijah Creen and Josh Bergman are hosting a party in a rented house in Georgetown, Washington DC. Cross and Sampson raid the party and find Creen and Bergman filming the ‘talent’. Creen tries to offer Cross a bribe who thinks this is just an unfortunate scandal and the only person upset was his wife who filed for divorce. As this is happening there are three killers running riot across DC. Metro PD are under a lot of pressure with plenty of eyes on show more the investigation. Cross is under pressure and one of the suspects files a restraining order on him. Everything seems to be going wrong for Cross, and he feels he is being hampered at every turn.

While the thriller and the parts of the investigation are great there are times in the book when you feel like Cross needs ‘to get over himself’. This is not one of the best Patterson thrillers and while I am a completist there is nothing really to recommend the book. show less

Detective Alex Cross ruined plastic surgeon Elijah Creem’s life. Now out of jail, Creem has given himself a new face. Meanwhile Cross begins investigating the disappearance of a newborn from a crime scene only to be called away by an apparent serial killer on the loose in Washington, D. C. Focused on his multiple investigations, it takes Cross awhile to realize he himself is being hunted.

Alex Cross, Run is the 20th novel in the crime series by James Patterson to feature Detective Alex Cross and was a solid addition to the series. I've only missed 4 books in the series so far, and have managed to keep up with what's happening as many of the novels can be read as a stand alone.

Alex Cross hasn't changed much; he's still a workaholic, spends little time with his family and even less time on the basics (including sleep). Nana Mama (well into her 90s now) is the glue of the family, and it continues to annoy me how reliant Alex is on his family to continue with their lives with so little input from him.

Having said that, the situations Alex finds himself in Alex Cross, Run highlight his weaknesses and make for interesting show more reading as a consequence. There are two consecutive plot threads, the first concerns the murders Cross is called to investigate and the second (and what really held my attention) relates to a stalker who is keen on destroying his life.

Still to come in the series are Cross My Heart (#21) Hope to Die (#22), which I'm yet to discover. show less

I haven't read this series in years but some reviewers thought James Patterson was back to good form in this 16th entry so it seemed a good place to jump in. The audiobook was entertaining enough because it moves very quickly - "chapters" that are 2 pages long will do that (over 100 chapters in a 7-hour audiobook!!) - but there was nothing clever about how Cross investigates. He makes reference to being a profiler in the past but never uses those skills in this case. For a high-profile cover up, the real killer is discovered remarkably easily. Patterson tries to make Cross sympathetic by throwing in an ailing grandmother and it works slightly but Cross doesn't seem to have any conflict - when he's with Nana, he's doesn't think about the show more case; when he's working the case, he's doesn't think about Nana. And, even though the reader is supposedly inside Cross's head, he keeps his biggest secret completely out of his head (and away from the reader) until the end. The plot is standard fare - sex scandal cover-up involving D.C. bigwigs. show less

Typical, generic Alex Cross.
Good story, but this book needed a better editor -- there was way too much from Patterson's co writer and it was very out of character dialog for the Cross family.
The case itself was ok -- I found the "Russel" piece more interesting than Doctor Creem and Joshua because you didn't know where it was going to end up, even once Russell's true identity came to light. What as also a nice surprise was the mention of Cross' brother Blake. I don't recall him coming up previously . The later parallels to Ava were sad, however, but I loved that it was Sampson who broke the news. That Alex didn't find Giudice's listening device concerns me for future books.

“This is your other problem. You’ve started to believe your show more own publicity. Alex Cross, the Dragonslayer. Alex Cross, the Sherlock Holmes of MPD. Alex Cross, the second goddamn coming of Christ! You’re a paper tiger, Alex. A phony! And people need to know about it.”

In some ways the same could be said of Patterson and his book factory. show less