collected
Fiction · Novel · Mystery & Thriller · Mystery and thriller
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.
Alex Cross has left police work for a psychology practice in Washington, D.C., when a series of public murders draws him back into an investigation alongside his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone. The killer stages deaths for spectators and broadcasts his crimes online, pursuing fame as Cross and Stone try to stop him.
The pace is fast in this thirteenth Alex Cross thriller, alternating the investigation with the killers’ preparations, so the pursuit unfolds from both sides. Cross’s family life and relationship with Bree provide breaks from the case, but the murders are gruesome spectacles, and the violence is strong.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
No, little prior knowledge is needed, though this is the thirteenth Alex Cross novel. The investigation follows Cross’s return from psychology practice to police work, while his family life and relationship with Detective Brianna Stone also receive attention.
No, the prose is direct, spare and driven by dialogue. The narrative alternates between the investigation and the killers’ preparations, so there are shifts to follow, but the pace is fast.
Strong violence includes gruesome murders staged as public spectacles, with a killer broadcasting his crimes online to pursue fame. These killings are central to the investigation and contribute to the dark, tense and unsettling tone.
No, Cross’s family life and relationship with Bree provide breaks from the case. The main pursuit remains fast and suspenseful, with alternating attention to the investigators and the killers preparing their crimes.
About 432 pages in the Grand Central Publishing 2008 edition.
Grand Central Publishing · 2008 · Mass Market Paperback. ISBN 9780446198981.
About 8 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 432-page Grand Central Publishing edition. Dense books can take longer.
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.
Keigo Higashino
Mystery & Thriller · Mystery and thriller · Detective fiction
David Lagercrantz
Mystery & Thriller · Mystery and thriller · Detective fiction
