Book review: The People vs Alex Cross

Author: James Patterson

Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh

Review made possible by: Penguin Random House South Africa

When Alex Cross is charged with cold-blooded murder for the shooting of followers of his arch rival Gary Soneji, the prosecution is out to make an example of him.

Faced with what they perceive as a rash of police shootings, they are convinced they can send a message to every cop who has ever unholstered his weapon: Killings by cops who regard themselves as above the law will not be tolerated.

It’s an interesting concept in this, James Patterson’s 25th book in the Alex Cross chronicles.

A man who is regarded as a hero and the poster boy for the police and FBI suddenly becomes a dirty cop, is suspended and is forced to turn to his second profession – psychological counselling – to occupy his days.

But, surprise surprise, he keeps slipping out the back door to help his former partner, John Sampson, track down a group of sadists who are kidnapping blondes and distributing snuff movies on the dark web.

Behind the group is a web mastermind who, as usual in these kinds of stories, bounces his signal around the world and cannot be traced … that is until the archetypal scruffy FBI backroom geek, Dr “Krazy Kat” Rawlins, gets involved and the mists are lifted.

Meanwhile, things are looking bad for Alex in the courtroom.

The evidence is incontrovertible.

The witnesses have their story down pat.

The prosecution, as they say, is ready to hit a home run.

Chief among this, Alex’s supporters is his young son, Ali, who is determined to prove his father innocent.

But what can a nine-year-old hope to achieve?

Particularly one who, by his own admission, has yet to tackle physics in school.

Patterson sticks to his tried-and-tested formula of short, sharp paragraphs and cut-to-the-bone prose which makes his books so readable.

He knows what he is doing – he has sold in excess of 325 million copies of his work after all.