The first novel in the ‘Alex Cross’ series, this story follows the forensic psychologist as he works on two cases: that of a brutal murder of two women and a child, and a high profile kidnapping of two children from an exclusive private school. Totally unrelated at first, the story soon leads us to one common factor: the brilliantly psychotic Gary Soneji.
Other than the smooth reading, what kept my interest consistently alive was the fact that every time a mystery was solved or a plot point concluded, something new came up. Quite early on in the story, we are introduced to the perpetrator and his grand plans; and even while I was wondering what was left to read, the story revealed yet another dramatic turn of events.
I did not care for the two biggest relationships in this story - that of Alex Cross and his grandmother, and that of Alex Cross and Jezzie Flannagan, the head of the missing children's Secret Service detail. Both seemed to be written by someone who was not comfortable discussing relationships and had to resort to clichés to tell that part of the story. Only the fact that one of them is integral to the story, made me keep reading through those sections.
Other than that small hitch, this was a great story told really well - moving rapidly from morbid obsessions to brutal murders, from hypnosis sessions to unlikely witnesses ... with some really surprising twists.
Great review as always, Rashmi! I read Along Came a Spider...quite enjoyed it! It had some great twists and I thought that Alex Cross was a really great central character. I like the first 5-6 of Patterson's early Cross novels and even a couple of the non-Cross books like "See How They Run". However, don't read him anymore and haven't for years. His work, at least the stories I read in the early 2000's, became very clichéd, very predictable and very boring.
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