The spectacular international bestseller that introduced Washington-based homicide detective Alex Cross and launched James Patterson's career as one of the fastest-selling thriller writers in the world -- now reissued in striking new cover style. He had always wanted to be famous. When he kidnapped two well-known rich kids, it was headline news. Then one of them was found -- dead -- and the whole nation was in uproar. For such a high-profile case, they needed the top people -- Alex Cross, a black detective with a PhD in psychology, and Jezzie Flanagan, an ambitious young Secret Service agent -- yet even they were no match for the killer. He had the unnerving ability to switch from blood-crazed madness to clear-eyed sanity in an instant. But was he the helpless victim of a multiple-personality disorder -- or a brilliant, cold-blooded manipulator?
A meandering plot so full of holes and an excess of bad guys, that I hardly know what to think of this hot mess. Evidence of Gary Soneji's smarts was more down to coincidence than anything else, and in moments where he should have been able to use his brain, he just proved himself so immensely stupid, that I really struggled to take him seriously as an antagonist. It was predictable and ended with a twist that was bordering on cliche. This is my second James Patterson novel to date (the first being Kiss the Girls, which if anything was worse than this one) that I really, truly wonder how he remains a best-seller if these are considered the best he can offer.
