Crime

This book was a great revisit to Alex Cross' world and into the trauma experienced by soldiers when they return home. It did not get my usual 5 star rating, though, because the book seemed to be relying on too many formulas.

Still, it is a great page-turner. Alex Cross is deciding to resign from his policing job and instead go into another field. It may be psychology, it may be the FBI and he he leaning toward the FBI. Then his best friend, Sampson, urges him to help clear an old Army buddy from Death Row.

As the two lifelong friends investigate what appears to be a wrongful conviction they come up against the thick grey wall of the armed forces. Seems that Sampson's buddy was accused of a brutal murder of three women, including painting and posing the bodies, and nothing either Sampson or Cross say will change the verdict.

Along with this conviction are more Army men accused of similarly heinous crimes, all of whom plead innocent and all of whom are put to death by the State. All of them served in the Vietnam War.

And then we begin to see the co-plot of three men, veterans of this same War, who seem to be re-enacting something from their days in Vietnam. They have a horrible blood lust and seem to revel in tracking down and killing their victims.

In the personal side of this book, Nana is beginning to feel her age and it takes Alex everything he can do to get her to a doctor. In fact, the Doctor comes to visit Nana and only then does she agree to go to a hospital. And the possible interest from the previous book, Jamilla, begins a long-distance romance with Alex.

By the end, the resolution was just a bit too pat and complete, and the chance to hear the stories from the bad guys didn't happen. I would have loved a confession of some sort from them. ( )

These books are like soap operas, they aren't that good, but you keep coming back for more... ( )

Another great page turner by Patterson. This book trails the story of Alex and Sampson trying to solve a crime that ends up killing an old friend of John's. A trail of murders committed that framed Army soldiers and sent them to death row. The three killers are professional assasins and the Army is hiding information. In the mean time, Nana is not well and Alex is having to deal with possibly losing her. Good plot twists and some surprises in this book.
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I would officially give this book 4.5 stars. It definitely kept my interest the whole way through (like most James Patterson novels). But like most James Patterson novels, it is pretty one dimensional which keeps me from giving it the 5 total stars it could get. I love when authors bring in historical facts (in this case about the Vietnam War) and I also have a family member serving so this story felt a little closer to home for me. I will be continuing to read on in the Cross series - they are always entertaining and I can get through them pretty quickly. ( )