Along Came a Spider

by James Patterson

Ebook, 1993

Library's rating

Library's review

One of my co-workers is an enthusiastic James Patterson fan, and has been urging me to give his Alex Cross series a try. I have a vague memory of having read one of the later books and enjoying it, but I wanted to go back to the beginning and get the full background on the characters. This is the

first book in the series, and does an effective job of drawing the main characters: Detective/psychologist Alex Cross, his partner, and his family. All of them are engaging characters that i felt I'd be happy to spend more time with.

The plot, featuring a psychotic child kidnapper and murderer, was less successful. There's little suspense in discovering the bad guy; the twist comes with trying to prove whether he committed the crimes while sane or as a "split" personality. Having just read a handful of well-written legal thrillers, I found Patterson's trial scenes to be less convincing, and I realized I didn't really care about the technicalities of whether the killer was sane or not since he obviously committed the crimes. More interesting was the smattering of political intrigue within the Washington, D.C., police department and its interactions with the FBI and other agencies. I hope that area is more fully developed in future Cross novels.

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Description

Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:Discover the classic thriller that launched the #1 detective series of the past twenty-five years, now one of PBS's "100 Great American Reads" Alex Cross is a homicide detective with a Ph.D. in psychology. He works and lives in the ghettos of D. C. and looks like Muhammad Ali in his prime. He's a tough guy from a tough part of town who wears Harris Tweed jackets and likes to relax by banging out Gershwin tunes on his baby grand piano. But he also has two adorable kids of his own, and they are his own special vulnerabilities. Jezzie Flanagan is the first woman ever to hold the highly sensitive job as supervisor of the Secret Service in Washington. Blond, mysterious, seductive, she's got an outer shell that's as tough as it is beautiful. She rides her black BMW motorcycle at speeds of no less than 100 mph. What is she running from? What is her secret? Alex Cross and Jezzie Flanagan are about to have a forbidden love affair-at the worst possible time for both of them. Because Gary Soneji, who wants to commit the "crime of the century," is playing at the top of his game. Soneji has outsmarted the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police. Who will be his next victim? Gary Soneji is every parent's worst nightmare. He has become Alex Cross's nightmare. And now, reader, he's about to become yours.… (more)