About 8 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 18 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Washington, D.C., detective Alex Cross arrests plastic surgeon Elijah Creem at a party where teenagers are being sexually exploited, but Creem is soon free again. Meanwhile, several murder investigations compete for Cross’s attention, including the death of a woman whose newborn baby is missing. As the bodies accumulate and fears of multiple serial killers spread across the city, Cross is too occupied with the cases to recognize a threat directed at him.
Reader notes
Brief chapters alternate among police work, Cross’s family life and the men planning their next crimes. The pace is brisk, but the material is grim: brutal murders and the sexual exploitation of teenagers are part of the story.
How it reads
Writing style
Dialogue-driven · Direct · Spare
Tone
Dark · Suspenseful · Tense
Structure
Braided
Driven by
Mystery · Plot
Point of view
Mixed viewpoints
Setting
Washington, D.C.
Reading complexity
Writing
2 / 5
Ideas
2 / 5
Structure
3 / 5
Background knowledge
1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Writing
How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas
How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure
How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge
Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity
Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
No, prior knowledge is not essential, though this is entry 18 in the Alex Cross series. The investigations share space with Cross’s family life and a threat directed at him.
Is it hard to read?
No, the prose is direct, spare and driven by dialogue, with brief chapters that keep the pace brisk. The main thing to follow is the switching among police work, Cross’s family life and the men planning crimes.
How dark is it?
Strong violence and sexual abuse are central, including brutal murders and the sexual exploitation of teenagers. One investigation concerns a dead woman whose newborn baby is missing, so the brisk pace comes with grim, emotionally intense material.
Is it focused on one case or several?
Several murder investigations compete for Cross’s attention as fears of multiple serial killers spread across Washington, D.C. The narrative also follows men planning crimes, while Cross is too occupied with the cases to recognize a threat aimed at him.
How long is it?
About 432 pages in the Little, Brown and Company 2013 edition. Brief chapters and a brisk pace keep the police work, family scenes and criminals’ plans moving.
Which edition is shown here?
Little, Brown and Company · 2013 · Trade paperback. ISBN 9781455521500.
How long does it take to read Alex Cross, Run?
About 8 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 432-page Little, Brown and Company edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
James Patterson
James Patterson is an American author whose large body of work ranges from long-running detective series to stand-alone thrillers, romance, nonfiction, and books for younger readers. His crime fiction favors velocity and clarity, using spare, direct prose, dialogue-driven scenes, and several lines of danger that tighten around a central investigation. Recurring protagonists pair professional expertise with exposed private lives. Alex Cross, a detective and forensic psychologist, reads criminal behavior while cases threaten his family or draw him into contests staged by killers. Along Came a Spider pits that insight against an abductor determined to control both the investigation and its public story, while Kiss the Girls widens the pursuit across jurisdictions and two coordinated offenders. Patterson also builds suspense through teams whose members possess different kinds of access. In 1st to Die, homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer shares evidence with a medical examiner, prosecutor, and reporter, turning institutional obstacles into an informal method of investigation.
