Book Reivew: Cross My Heart by James Patterson

                The book, Cross My Heart, by James Patterson portrays the action story of the famous detective Alex Cross. His everyday hero acts are now being tested by solving three different mysteries of murders, kidnapping babies, and finding his missing adopted daughter, Ava. Meanwhile trying to discover the person behind these crimes, he has his own enemy plotting against him, his old detective partner Marcus Sunday. Throughout the story we see both the perspective of the hero and the bad guy, and understand how all the crimes being committed are somehow connected together, but how long will it take Alex Cross to figure this out himself?

In the very beginning of the novel you get the perspective of Marcus Sunday. He is famous for a different reason, being an expert of what goes through minds of criminals. Takes a criminal to know a criminal I suppose. In the novel you understand he is an extremely intelligent man, he knows how to convince people, to persuade, how to plan everything out. He finds himself different from Cross and believes he is a lot better than him and should have more credit, “What Detective Cross and I have is a strong difference of opinion. Nothing more.”  (Patterson 3%).You understand that he is the criminal behind the next events which brings Alex Cross into the story. As a character though, you start to love seeing his perspective, you are looking through a criminals mind, his ideas and the details Patterson gives throughout the story is written so well. 

Alex Cross’s perspective comes in during an investigation of a crime scene of a prostitution building. Three victims are found on the ground covered in blood, their wounds were caused by multiple bullets. In the mind of Alex Cross he is able to visualize any crime scene and how they occurred making him an excellent detective, “I counted four 9mm shells around the bodies. It appeared that the killer had sprayed disinfectant all over the room. Stream of it stained the bodies, the furniture, and the floor.” (Patterson 5%). The police force is very reliant on Cross’s gift of visualizing the scene, both he and his wife are well known for being in the same department. The way Patterson is able to write scene by scene with much detail makes you drawn into the novel, because it is very easy to picture what is going on throughout the story. 

What’s very interesting about the writing style of this book is to see Sunday’s perspective while committing the crimes and plotting against Cross. Why such an intelligent man want to pursue a criminal life? He feels this sort of rush of killing people and his love interest and assistant Acadia feels the same, “But Acadia was not a gator. She was a jaguar, a panther. She was always a big cat at moments like this, hunting for the darkest part of herself.” (Patterson 35%). These two insane people have driven motives of getting revenge and showing their power. Sunday uses a computerized model to see Cross’s house as a 3D virtual world, making him almost invincible. Seeing a perspective of a criminal is almost as seeing the average world into a completely new world.

Patterson puts Alex Cross throughout the story in a maze puzzle, fitting the pieces together while going through different obstacles. The lives of victims are at stake and time is running out for Cross, but little does he know his own life will also be at stake. Will he figure out in time who is behind the crimes or will it be too late? The fact that the reader already knows who is behind the crimes makes them wonder how long will the author will finally make Cross discover it himself.

The theme of the novel would portray how different criminal investigations can tie together. This novel would definitely be under the categories of intense, action and excitement. The author gives very detailed visuals where as if you feel you are seeing the book as a movie. By seeing the perspectives of both the hero and the bad guy, you wonder how long it will take Cross to realize his own enemy is a lot closer to him than he thinks. An amazing story written extremely well, I am now a huge fan of James Patterson as an author.