Target: Alex Cross by James Patterson {Book Review}

I may start doing #BookReviewFriday 3 times a week at the rate I’ve been reading! Okay…kidding…..but gals, I have really gotten into reading big time over the last few weeks. I finished today’s book, Target: Alex Cross, in about 2 days….and then I promptly started reading another one. If you have followed my book reviews, you’d know my first James Patterson book was a bit of a miss. I then read another one…and that review is coming next week, but it was a bit 50/50. Today’s book gave me some hope though…..that there’s a reason he has such a huge fan base!

Quote from the book

“Even wolves have moments of kindness.”
― James Patterson, Target: Alex Cross

What is ‘Target: Alex Cross’ about?

TARGET: HEAD OF STATE
Men and women from across the nation line the streets of Washington D.C. to mourn the unexpected death of the President. Hit by painful memories of the loss of his first wife, Alex Cross is left reeling by this tragedy.

TARGET: UNITED STATES CABINET
A sniper’s bullet strikes another devastating blow to the heart of Washington with the assassination of a prominent Senator. The shock of this attack puts huge pressure on the police to deliver a speedy response, and as Chief of Detectives, Alex’s wife Bree Stone is given an ultimatum: solve the case, or lose her job.

TARGET: ALEX CROSS
The new President calls on Alex Cross to lead an unparalleled FBI investigation to help capture America’s most wanted criminal. Alex has a terrible feeling that the assassination is just the beginning of a much larger plan. All too soon this fear springs to life as a terrifying chain of events plunges the government and the entire country into chaos. The stakes have never been higher for Alex Cross as his courage, his training and his capacity.

My thoughts

This book starts at the funeral of President Grant and the mood is very somber and sad. Then it kind of just takes off from there….We are right there when the Senator is assassinated and from there we meet a series of characters, assassins, crime scenes…..it’s just this series of scenes and events that really does plunge the country into a state of panic and chaos. Previously I complained about the shorter chapters, but I enjoyed that style in this book. I think because the book is so fast paced, so many scenes, so many characters…..the chapters needed to move fast as well. It left me wanting to just keep turning the pages.

I was concerned that with this being the 26th Alex Cross book, I may feel a bit left behind, but that really wasn’t the case. This book does really well as a standalone book and you really don’t even have to know that Morgan Freeman played Alex Cross in ‘Kiss the Girls’. Side note: I was totally picturing Tyler Perry as Alex Cross in this book though. The ending….I’d say I was 93% happy with the revelation of the masterplan, 7% of me was like..hmmm. Then the very very end…last page ending….sets us up for another book (I hope), so I’m keen to get my hands on that one!

I’ve told my husband to read this book, because I think with the story line and the assassins he’ll really enjoy this. They go into detail with the weapons, things I kind of skimmed over, because I’m clueless, but I reckon my husband may have more of an appreciation for those details.

The book retails for around R270 and is available at all leading book retailers. Target: Alex Cross also has a Goodreads average rating of 4.07/5, which I think is a fair rating. I rated it a solid 4.

Does this sound like something you’d want to read?