2024 Book Review #11: Cross Down

 

Patterson is one of my absolute fave mystery authors, besides Patricia Cornwall. I have read all of his Alex Cross books in order from 1993 when they first came out  to this latest one.  He's a phenomenal author who has developed beloved characters in this series.  He also has a couple of other series out as well, and many stand alone novels. 

STORY SUMMARY

For the first time in forever, John Sampson, a Metro Police Department detective and best friend of Alex Cross, an FBI profiler and detective, is working a crime alone. Alex has been gunned down!!  He is seriously injured and in a coma in the Washington University Hospital's ICU.  His family (wife Bree Stone; oldest son Damon, daughter Jannie, youngest son Ali and Nana Mama) are with him.  John's only child, a 7 year old daughter Willow is also with the Cross family.  John's wife Billie is deceased and he's been raising Willow alone for the last 2 years. 

This crime busting duo has always had a motto "Alex Cross makes his own rules and John Sampson enforces them." 

When military-style attacks erupt in the DC area and around the USA, Sampson is determined to find the source of these attacks. Before Alex gets shot, he tells John that the attacks seem to have random patterns. Ned Mahoney, their friend and FBI boss, tells John  to not trust anyone. 

As a shadow force/terrorist group advances on the nation's capital and most particularly the White House, John must protect the Cross family, his own daughter, and every single American including the president. 

Will he succeed?  Who is really behind these attacks with supposed connections to Afghanistan?  And WHY? 

MY THOUGHTS

In my opinion, this is one of the very best Alex Cross books in a very long time. Patterson has really outdone himself with this latest one. 

Telling the story in John's voice is a first.  Having Alex only appear a few times in the story is also a first.  I was scared at the outcome......will Alex survive??

The plot moves along so quickly. Each chapter is short and you find yourself turning page after page before realizing it's past midnight and maybe you should go to bed!  (Good thing I'm retired!) 

The scary thing about this story is that given today's political agendas and culture with various politicians who shall remain unnamed, I could see something like this uprising happening. I mean we've already seen it to a lesser degree  on Jan 6 2021 right??  

The character development has been established years ago and it was nice to see Damon coming home to support his dad for awhile.  (Damon, Alex's oldest son goes to college). I did enjoy the development of the new characters in this particular book as well. 

The main themes in this book (underlying theme is grief and anger from the main "bad guy") seem to be justice, friendship, betrayal, government corruption, family ties, love. 

If you'e never read an Alex Cross Detective story, I highly recommend you begin with the first one (Along Came a Spider, c. 1993) and then read them in order. You can find the order here.  I started doing book reviews on here around the 2010 time frame so the earlier books are not reviewed here on my blog. 

In  the middle of the book, one quote really jumped out at me.  The author was describing an American flag that was hanging next to a handwritten sign in an army camp in Tajikistan.  Whether this is an actual sign I have no idea.  It read 

"We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate die for the  ungrateful." 

Sobering is it not??  May our nation never resort to what this fiction book describes and may we all, whether we have family members in a branch of the military or not, be thankful for their services. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content). 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.