Cross by James Patterson

Cross by James Patterson was a delightful read. I give it five stars *****. Cross is the 12th book in James Patterson's Cross series. I read the mass paperback version and was enthralled from start to finish. I read it under two days. It was so good that I immediate went out and bought books one and two of the series, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls.

This book had several things going for it. I appreciate Patterson's use of short, straightforward sentences during scenes in which a lot of action occurs. He writes using short chapters. Many of the chapters were two or three pages long. I love this in a murder mystery because it adds to the, "I'll just read one more chapter before going to sleep" mentality of the reader. Patterson alternates in this series between first person narrative for Alex Cross' chapters and third person narrative for the chapters in which the killer is present.

From the sell copy of Cross, we learn that Alex Cross' wife is murdered in this book, and Alex has to find her killer. Wow. That alone drew me into buying the novel. As I mentioned, I plucked this novel from the middle of a series, and I wasn't in the least confused by what was going on. Cross is a self contained book, and I didn't feel cheated by not reading the preceeding books in the series.

Also, a lot of action happens in Cross. It was paced as excellently written thriller.