Cross Down: The Sunday Times bestselling thriller

Product Information

And while it’s obviously part of a bigger series, this one can stand alone as it’s own book (I’m an Alex Cross series newbie myself). Over three decades and 31 books, the character of Alex Cross has hunted many serial killers and other villains and bad guys. I was very impressed by the way the characters came together and how much nonstop action there was in the story. Short chapters, in Patterson’s traditional way, help push things along and keep the reader delving deeper into things as they occur.

He has written many other number one bestsellers including collaborations with President Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, stand-alone thrillers and non-fiction. This book is different in the sense that it focuses more on John Sampson and his investigation, while Alex Cross is man down. Alex of course knows that they aren't random but the day he goes to share, he and John find themselves amid gunfire and Alex is shot - hence the title "Cross Down". If those two taglines aren’t enough, the inside flap synopsis should clear all doubt that this will be different with its first sentence – “For the first time, John Sampson is on his own. As Sampson discovers a lead through an ex-military contact, his partner Alex Cross is brutally side-lined, leaving him certain about one thing: he can trust no one.

I remember reading the Alex’s first adventure, “Along came a Spider” and almost cried when Alex, then a widower, faced the loss of his new love in an ending twist I would never forget. This is a big first in the series; Alex Cross was shot at the beginning of the book; and hospitalized in critical condition. He is the creator of unforgettable characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Effing Smith, and Maximum Ride, and of breathtaking true stories about the Kennedys, John Lennon, and Princess Diana, as well as our military heroes, police officers, and ER nurses. Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. I can see a great deal of potential with this new spin to the series, involving John Sampson a great deal more.

In this installment, Sampson is carrying the weight of justice on his own and I feel we see how he develops.This one is fast-paced, and really features John Simpson in a rush to save the country from a looming threat. Turns out that John was the target, not Alex, and that someone is killing off the members that were involved in a secret CIA military operation in Afghanistan years ago.

Cross Down” begins with Cross and Sampson being pulled into a Presidential task force to deal with a rash of recent attacks that are more than what they first appeared to be. As the book goes along, John realizes that he can't trust anyone except for Alex and their FBI friend Ned Mahoney. While Cross fights for his life, Sampson must move forward without his partner’s great intelligence for profiling and hunting down serial killers.Another interesting thing that I noted is that the authors kept the same storytelling point-of-view that I thought worked well. Though Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Jack Carr’s James Reece, Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger and many more have written better novels, with their heroes confronting sub Rosa, Deep State efforts to end our Republic, Patterson’s effort here, is decent, with characters we really care about…With Alex out, John Sampson carries the load in this thriller…Good Stuff! What really pisses me off is that Patterson doesn’t give a shit that his once good name as an author is going down the toilet.