Hope to Die by James Patterson

Out Now
Published by Randomhouse
Purchase from Amazon here


The Blurb

This is the mind-blowing sequel to Cross My Heart.

Detective Alex Cross is being stalked by a psychotic genius, forced to play the deadliest game of his career. Cross's family – his loving wife Bree, the wise and lively Nana Mama, and his precious children--have been ripped away. Terrified and desperate, Cross must give this mad man what he wants if he has any chance of saving the most important people in his life. The stakes have never been higher: What will Cross sacrifice to save the ones he loves?

Widely praised by the greatest crime and thriller writers of our time, Cross My Heart set a jaw-dropping story in motion. Hope to Die propels Alex Cross's greatest challenge to its astonishing finish, proving why Jeffery Deaver says "nobody does it better" than James Patterson.


My Review

I can't tell you how much I love the Alex Cross series. If you have read Cross My Heart you will know what a cliffhanger it ended on. Hope to Die is book number 22 in the Alex Cross series, and having read them all I feel a close affinity to the family, a bit like a fly on the wall who has watched them go through good times and bad, and become quite attached to them. So the cliffhanger really took my breath away and has left me on tenter hooks for twelve months, eagerly waiting this new book to find out their fate.

Hope to Die has certainly not disappointed me, and was, as always, filled with action and twists and turns. As the story starts we still don't know what has become of the Cross family. A couple of bodies have been found, but it is not confirmed who they are. I couldnt imagine that this was it, the end the Cross family, but I really wasnt sure where it was going at all.

The chapters, as you come to expect with James Patterson books are short, which allows us readers to quickly flit between scenes, and follow both the bad guys as well as Alex. For me this approach always makes the books feel more energised and fast paced, which adds to the tension.

With suspicion mounting in some quarters that he is to blame Alex takes to the road in a cat and mouse race against time as the search goes on. At the same time as following Alex as he closes in on the truth we also follow those who have taken his family. As we visit various locations we learn more about the serial killer who has taken his family captive. There are a few gruesome scenes amongst these as well, particularly involving pigs and alligators! The descriptions certainly had the imagination going.

The 'baddie' in this book is particularly nasty, and it takes a long time for Alex Cross and the others to work out who is behind it all. Throughout this time I could feel the clock ticking away on his family's lives and I really wasn't sure what the outcome would be.

I have always loved the relationship between Alex and his partner John. They would do anything for eachother and make a formidable partnership. However in this book I loved the partnership between Alex and his foster daughter Ava. She is one smart cookie, and with a gorgeous heart. I have come to really like her as a character and the way she forms part of the unofficial investigation team in this book is brilliant.

Will there be a happy ending? Oh, I can't possibly say......

But I love James Patterson books, and the Cross family in particular, and I hope this isn't the last we will see of them.