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The FBI is hunting for serial killer Michael Sullivan, also known as the Butcher of Slingo. Michael rapes women and then threatens to butcher them if they tell anyone. All the women believe Sullivan's threat because he shows them pictures of what he has done to other women who did not heed his warning. The pictures are not pretty. One of the first murders occurred ten years earlier. Sullivan raped a college student and he warned her to keep quiet, but she tells a nurse what happened. The nurse was Mary Cross, wife of up and coming Washington, DC detective Alex Cross. Within days of learning of the rape, Mary was shot and died in Alex's arms. Now, years later, young women are being raped and slaughtered in the DC area again. Alex, now working for the FBI, is on the case determined to find the Butcher of Slingo because Alex believes that it was Sullivan who killed his wife. CROSS is author James Patterson's newest novel in his wildly popular Alex Cross series. After some recent disappointments I'm glad to say that Patterson is once again writing as well as he did when he first introduced this series. In CROSS we have the character of Michael Sullivan, a lunatic who gets his thrills by raping women and butchering anyone and everyone. Patterson takes us into Sullivan's past when he was a boy in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, New York working with his father in the family's butcher shop. It was there Sullivan learned how to kill by using knives. He eventually perfected his butchering skills when he slaughtered his abusive father. Eventually the Mafia learned about Sullivan and his knives and he soon became mob boss, John Maggione's favorite killer. CROSS is an unusual installment of this series as it is more about Sullivan than Alex. In fact, the chapters written about Sullivan were well written and pulled me into the story. The parts about Alex Cross were basically the same old thing. Once again we read about Alex's household with his grandmother, Nana Mamma, who lives and takes care of Alex and his children and John Sampson, Alex's best friend, is also in the story helping to find Sullivan. Patterson seems to be struggling to find some sort of new story line for the Cross family but he isn't succeeding. Nana Mamma gets angry with Alex because he doesn't have time for his children so she packs her bags and leaves the family to fend for themselves. This doesn't last long since in the very next chapter she moves back in but her action prompts Cross to do as Nana Mamma asks. He leaves the FBI to open his own office as a psychologist, but of course the FBI contacts him and asks for his help in finding Sullivan and Alex is back working at the job that he just recently left. All in all, we're back at square one. Perhaps Patterson has written all he can about the Cross family and should go on with a new character. The author still has great talent. I was intrigued with everything about Michael Sullivan. I looked forward to all the chapters about him but started to yawn when the story returned to the Cross family. Fans of Alex Cross and Patterson will enjoy this newest book but some of the characters, including Cross, are getting a little tiring. If you've read the rest of this series, pick up CROSS if only to get some closure about Alex's wife, Mary. I do hope, though, that the author can eventually install some new life and excitement into this seemingly dying series.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, November 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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