When Murder Hits Close to Home: Alex Cross, Lindsay Boxer and Friends

I admit it. Romance novels are my first love, but over the years I’ve also gotten hooked on murder, mystery and mayhem. It must be the characters I’ve come to love, i.e. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett and Jack Morgan. Don’t forget the women who wage war or crime, i.e. Eve Dallas and Lindsay Boxer. What’s not to love?

There’s always fresh material hitting the market, so grab your spectacles and let’s catch up with the latest thrillers. The pages from James Patterson and company should be a great place to start.

Cross Justice
James Patterson

The toughest cases are the ones that hit close to home.

When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known.

Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he's hot on the trail of both a brutal killer, and the truth about his own past—and the answers he finds might be fatal.

Profile: Alex Cross

Alex Cross is six foot three, weighs 200 pounds, and is athletic. He still lives on Fifth Street in D.C., with wife, Brianna (Bree) Stone, Nana Mama, Ali and Jannie, and Rosie the cat. Damon is away at prep school in Massachusetts. He drives a Mercedes Benz R 350.

Education

PH.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Special concentration in the field of abnormal psychology and forensic psychology.

Professional

Upon graduation Cross worked as a migrant farm worker for a year.

He went into private practice in D.C. and struggled financially for three years before giving it up.

He joined the Washington, D.C., Police Department as a psychologist, working in Homicide and Major Crimes. Cross is a profiler. He worked with VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) as a liaison between the FBI and D.C. police. After his stint as an FBI Senior Agent, Alex returned to private psychology practice and continued to consult for the MPD and the FBI as needed. He rejoined the MPD as a special consultant to the Major Case Squad.

A Washington Post Magazine in-depth article called Cross "The Last Southern Gentleman" and praised him for his work in Homicide. It brought his name to the public's attention.

Articles by Alex Cross on the criminal mind have appeared in Psychiatric Archives and American Journal of Psychiatry. He also wrote a diagnostic profile of psychopathic killer Gary Soneji/Murphy.

Alert

James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

 "This is not a test"—every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality.

New Yorkers aren't easily intimidated, but someone is doing their best to scare them, badly: why? After two inexplicable high-tech attacks, the city that never sleeps is on edge. Detective Michael Bennett, along with his old pal, the FBI's Emily Parker, have to catch the shadowy criminals who claim responsibility—but they're as good at concealing their identities as they are at wreaking havoc.

In the wake of a shocking assassination, Bennett begins to suspect that these mysterious events are just the prelude to the biggest threat of all. Soon he's racing against the clock, and against the most destructive enemy he's faced yet, to save his beloved city--before everyone's worst nightmare becomes a reality.

Profile: Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett is six foot three, weighs 200 pounds, and is Irish American. He lives in New York City with his 10 adopted kids who he cares for with the help of his au pair, Mary Catherine, and his grandfather Seamus. His wife, Maeve, died of cancer in December, 2007.

Michael graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan, and studied philosophy at Manhattan College in the Bronx.

Private: Paris
James Patterson & Mark Sullivan

Paris is burning—and only Private's Jack Morgan can put out the fire.

When Jack Morgan stops by Private's Paris office, he envisions a quick hello during an otherwise relaxing trip filled with fine food and sightseeing. But Jack is quickly pressed into duty after a call from his client Sherman Wilkerson, asking Jack to track down his young granddaughter who is on the run from a brutal drug dealer.

 Before Jack can locate her, several members of France's cultural elite are found dead—murdered in stunning, symbolic fashion. The only link between the crimes is a mysterious graffiti tag. As religious and ethnic tensions simmer in the City of Lights, only Jack and his Private team can connect the dots before the smoldering powder keg explodes.

 

NYPD 4
James Patterson & Marshall Karp

An audacious jewel heist. A murdered actress. A killer case for NYPD Red.

 In a city where crime never sleeps, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in only when a case involves the rich, famous, and connected. Detective Zach Jordan and his partner, Kylie MacDonald—the woman who broke his heart at the police academy—are the best of the best, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to catch a criminal, even if it means antagonizing the same high-flying citizens they're supposed to be helping.

 When a glitzy movie premiere is the scene of a shocking murder and high-stakes robbery, NYPD Red gets the call. Traversing the city's highs and lows, from celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan's criminal underworld, Zach and Kylie have to find a cold-blooded killer—before he strikes again.

 

15^th Affair
James Paterson and Maxine Paetro

Detective Lindsay Boxer chases an elusive suspect...her husband.

As she settles into motherhood and a happy marriage, Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when a beautiful, alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a downtown luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes.

The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth. Filled with pulse-pounding international intrigue, 15TH AFFAIR proves that all is fair in love, war, and espionage.