Hope to Die: (Alex Cross 22)

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In 1997, the novel was adapted into a film starring Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross and Ashley Judd as Kate McTiernan. This may be the final book on the list, but James Patterson is by no means finished with the Alex Cross series. A new book is scheduled for the end of the year, so feel free to race through Deadly Cross with as much zeal as it calls for — you won’t be without Alex Cross for long.

Geoffrey Shafer/ The Weasel, the antagonist of Pop Goes the Weasel and secondary antagonist in London Bridges. Shafer is responsible for kidnapping Christine Johnson, Alex's fiancée at the time, and killing his own wife, Lucy, in Pop Goes the Weasel. He is not seen until three or four books later ( London Bridges) where he is forced to work with the Wolf, a serial killer and powerful organized crime boss. He is then assigned to keep Alex Cross busy and later decides to hunt down Alex in London, only to be fatally wounded and killed by Cross when he confronts him. In the novel Pop Goes The Weasel, Geoffrey competes with a small group of other people, known as The Horsemen to kill people, or "live their fantasies". He is also known to have started killing many years before he was even introduced and has gone over 100 murders. Shafer is described as one of Alex's worst enemies. Hope to Die is the continuation of Cross My Heart, which was atrocious. There are so many holes in this story that it should have been called, No Hope, Dead. Besides the flaws in police procedure, the under-played reaction of Cross to his situation and the total predictability of the story, there are too many facts that are just wrong. An example, Patterson describes Cross as “six feet two inches with a thirty inch reach”. I am only five feet eleven inches and I have a thirty five inch reach without stepping up on my toes. Was I the only one who was hoping the villain would succeed? I decided to read this book out of the hope that one of the Cross family members would die, that being the only imaginable way to create any meaningful change in the character and the series. I dared hope that maybe James Patterson has finally come to his senses and will attempt to elevate this newest story above the usual manufactured crap? Perhaps? Alex Cross is one of the best-written heroes in American fiction, and each Cross novel further defines what it means to be a professional, a husband, a father, and above all, a man."— Lisa Scottoline The worst part of bad writing/non-editing is the chapter dealing with Alex Cross having to kill someone at the direction of Marcus Sunday (the antagonist). This chapter is written in first person so we are in Alex’s head. Okay so maybe I need to say spoiler alert here. We know and Alex knows that his killing is an act, but the thoughts in his head are portrayed as if they are. NO! Alex would not be having the emotions and physical response Patterson gives us knowing he is faking a killing.Hammond, Pete (October 18, 2012). "Alex Cross". Archived from the original on January 18, 2013 . Retrieved December 17, 2012. But this is Perry's show all the way and he proves that as a hired actor he can still deliver something audiences aren't expecting from Hollywood's most prolific multi-hyphenate. Nana Mama, the matriarch of the Cross family. She is Cross's grandmother that took him in when he was 10, since both his parents had died. She is currently entering her 90s, having nearly died in I, Alex Cross and adopting a young girl named Ava in Kill Alex Cross. She is described as a very "old woman", but tough for her age. She is also described by Alex as "stubborn". She usually argues with Alex over several things thus Alex dumbs her as "old woman" and "stubborn". She approves of Alex's new wife, Bree Stone, and considers her to be a daughter to her. Nana was once married to Alex's grandfather, who she was deeply in love with. Once he died, Nana never married again or dated, as it was mentioned in Four Blind Mice. She is also known for always having the last word against Alex. Well, truth is I'm glad I did. At the end of Cross My Heart, the 21st in the series, Cross had lost his entire family to kidnappings by a demented killer. That scenario is continued here as he works nonstop to find them (hopefully alive); and as might be expected, the tension gets hot and heavy. In fact, if I have a complaint, it's that the drama "crosses" the line of excessive - but even that really didn't take away that nonstop, edge-of-the-seat excitement. Behind all the noise and the numbers, we shouldn’t forget that no one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent—which is what James Patterson has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it.” Alex Cross is a crime, mystery, and thriller novel series written by James Patterson. The series focuses on Metropolitan Police Department detective and father Alex Cross as he faces threats to his family and the city of Washington, D.C. Supporting characters include two of Cross's children, Damon, and Janelle, as well as his grandmother Nana Mama. The series is usually narrated in first-person perspective by Alex Cross, and occasionally from the villains' point of view in third-person.

James Patterson didn’t get around to introducing Alex Cross, his most popular character (to date), until 1993. Since then, Patterson and Cross have become household names. Cross is an interesting character, not so much because of who he is or what he does as the type of villain he attracts. You can talk about Patterson’s strengths and weaknesses as an author, but no one has created as many truly frightening, over-the-top villains as he has. The worst of them, alas, seem to go after Cross, with varying degrees of success before succumbing to failure. Sometimes.Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind. MICHAEL CONNELLY So how many books does an author get to write before editors ignore their work and just put it out there? Obviously, James Patterson hit that number a long time ago. If all of this were not bad enough, the ending is lame. For two books we have had a methodical, diabolical killer who is meticulous in his planning. He would not have put himself in the situation that he does to end this story. Hope to Die is the sequel to Cross My Heart. It represents the 22nd installment in the wildly successful Alex Cross series by James Patterson. With that in mind, I called up my review of book 21, which I read in 2014. It seems to apply in this instance as well. To summarize: I love Patterson's machine gun writing style, but find the premise of the Alex Cross series tired and unrealistic, i.e. a cunning criminal crosses Cross, kidnapping and conceptually killing Cross' kin. Convoluted? Not really. Familiar? You bet. Crestfallen, Cross comes close to collapsing with concern. Calling upon his copious cranial components, Cross keeps coming, climactically crushing the callous creep.