ALEX CROSS, RUN (ALEX CROSS, 18)

Alex Cross, Run is the 20th book in the popular Alex Cross series by American author, James Patterson. This instalment starts with two brutal murders that soon turn to three. Cross is overseeing the cases, but also plagued by a vindictive journalist whose blog targets MPD and Cross in particular, as well as trouble brewing at home with their foster child, Ava. Several murders later, some of them obviously staged, it is apparent that MPD has three serial killers on their hands: one with a penchant for beautiful blondes whom he dispatches with precise slashes before cutting off their hair; one whose taste is for young gay men whom he shoots and then repeatedly stabs around the genitals; and one who strangles a young mother and kidnaps her new baby. As the journalist escalates his campaign with provocative posts on his blog and taunts at crime scenes, Cross lashes out, to his own detriment, and that of his department’s investigations. There is plenty of action in this page-turner: victims are shot, stabbed, hanged and drugged. Patterson uses this novel to comment on the Washington DC school system, group homes and the effect of blogs, freedom of speech and mobile phone cameras on police investigations. Patterson seems to have put a decent effort into this book: it has a dramatic climax (or two), the plot isn’t too fantastic and it doesn’t have the “phoned-in” feel of some of his recent books, especially those he delegates to co-writers. The next book, Cross My Heart, will still attract fans.