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Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | FICTION PAT | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Alex Cross is plunged into a case where military codes of honor conceal dark currents of revenge and ambition, and the men controlling the moves have the best weapons and training the world can offer.
Author Notes
James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1969 and received a M. A. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. His first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was written while he was working in a mental institution and was rejected by 26 publishers before being published and winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery.
He is best known as the creator of Alex Cross, the police psychologist hero of such novels as Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross has been portrayed on the silver screen by Morgan Freeman. He has had eleven on his books made into movies and ranks as number 3 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. He also writes the Women's Murder Club series, the Michael Bennett series, the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard series, BookShots series, Private series, NYPD Red series, and the Middle School series for children. He has won numerous awards including the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Reader's Digest Reader's Choice Award.
James Patterson introduced the Bookshots Series in 2016 which is advertised as All Thriller No Filler. The first book in the series, Cross Kill, made the New York Times Bestseller list in June 2016. The third and fourth books, The Trial, and Little Black Dress, made the New York Times Bestseller list in July 2016. The next books in the series include, $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal, French Kiss, Hidden: A Mitchum Story (co-authored with James O. Born). and The House Husband (co-authored Duane Swierczynski).
Patterson's novel, co-authored with Maxine Paetro, Woman of God, became a New York Times bestseller in 2016.
Patterson co-authored with John Connoly and Tim Malloy the true crime expose Filthy Rich about billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Eppstein.
In January 2017, he co-authored with Ashwin Sanghi the bestseller Private Delhi. And in August 2017, he co-authored with Richard Dilallo, The Store.
The Black Book is a stand-alone thriller, co-authored by James Patterson and David Ellis.
In April 2018, he co-authored Texas Ranger with Andrew Bourelle.
In May 2018, he co-authored Private Princess with Rees Jones.
In August 2018 he co-authored Fifty Fifty with Candice Fox.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This audio version of Patterson's latest Alex Cross thriller moves smoothly and with great energy. The story is one of Patterson's best: just as Cross is about to retire from the Washington, D.C., police and head out to California to pursue an attractive romantic possibility, he's pulled into an intriguing case in North Carolina by his partner and best friend, John Sampson, who asks Cross to help him prove that an old Vietnam colleague of Sampson's couldn't have killed three women in a particularly brutal manner. With two excellent readers splitting up the good guys' and bad guys' voices between them, the story never wanes or goes off-track. Broadway veteran Fernandez gives a strong performance of Cross and Sampson and adroitly brings Cross's crotchety grandmother to life. Emerson frighteningly portrays the villains, subtly differentiating the characters with his voice. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Forecasts, Oct. 7). (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Alex Cross is on the brink of retirement from the Washington Police Force when his best friend, John Sampson, comes to him with an urgent request. Sampson's friend, Sergeant Ellis Cooper, has just been convicted by a military court for the murders of three women. Cooper swears he's innocent, and Sampson believes him. Cross and Sampson head to North Carolina to investigate, but they're discouraged by the military stonewalling. Cross digs deeper and learns that Cooper isn't the first model officer to be convicted of brutal murders--other military men around the country have been accused, convicted, and even executed for crimes that bear a striking similarity to the murders Cooper supposedly committed. E-mails from an anonymous person who calls himself Foot Soldier supply Cross with clues and information, but Cross isn't sure he can trust the mysterious informant. A more pleasant distraction awaits Cross--Jamilla Hughes, a detective he worked with in Violets Are Blue (2001) comes to visit, and sparks fly between the two. Cross isn't the only one who finds love--Sampson is growing close to the widow of one of the executed military men. But when the search for the killers leads back to the army and men who fought in Vietnam, both Cross and Sampson will risk their lives to catch the killers. Patterson delivers another exciting thriller, with some intriguing new developments for Cross. --Kristine Huntley
Kirkus Review
Schematic and pedestrian, Patterson's latest (after The Beach House, p. 519) pits Alex Cross against a trio of serial killers. If only Alex Cross (last seen in Violets Are Blue, 200l) could retire from the Washington Police Force, as he wants to when he first appears here, having breakfast with his family. Alas, Cross's friend John Sampson entreats the detective to take one more case, and a desultory pursuit ensues. Sampson believes the conviction of his friend, 'Nam vet Ellis Cooper, for the brutal murder of three women resulted from a frame-up. Patterson's quick (what else?) crosscut to the killers bears Sampson out. Calling themselves "the three blind mice," the men are hired killers unaware of the identity and motives of their employer, who, presumably, is the fourth mouse of the title. With "the clock for Ellis Cooper . . . ticking so loud," Cross and Sampson search in vain for evidence to clear him before he is executed. The Army's indifference to evidence that clears Cooper and points to other suspects bluntly suggests a cover-up. Then, crimes similar to the ones Copper allegedly committed follow: the three killers slaughter their victims, paint them red, and leave a straw doll at the scene of the carnage. E-mails from someone called "Foot Soldier" lead Cross to the solution, which, as Patterson makes obvious, stems from atrocities the military committed in Vietnam. Some feel-good domestic scenes (Cross's grandma survives heart surgery) and a few hackneyed romantic interludes for Cross and Sampson break up the chase. At the closeout, the killers dispatched, Cross is planning to go to work for the FBI, suggesting a new tack for the series. Short chapters, paragraphs, and sentences; stilted dialogue; facile plotting; a few feeble passes at description: a Patterson blue-plate special.
Library Journal Review
In the latest Alex Cross thriller, his partner, John Sampson, takes center stage. A friend of John's, U.S. Army Sergeant Cooper, has been convicted of murdering three women. The military higher-ups are convinced that it's an open-and-shut case, but John knows that his friend is innocent. Their investigation is hampered at every turn, as if the army doesn't care to have the truth revealed, even when Cross and Sampson uncover other military men who were possibly framed for murder. Meanwhile, the real killers, who are methodical in covering their tracks and leaving incriminating evidence pointing to their targets, discover the investigation and decide to mark Cross and Sampson for extermination. This time around, Patterson's story is more personal than plot-driven, and there are a lot fewer plot twists than one usually finds in a Patterson novel. Still, Four Blind Mice is a vast improvement over the previous two Alex Cross thrillers (Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue), which were both poorly written and unnecessarily gruesome, with a number of unrealistic passages. Libraries won't be able to keep this new book on the shelves. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/02.]-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
