Cross Fire
by James Patterson
(Random House Struik, R215)
Featuring rooftop snipers, corrupt politicians and a criminal mastermind back from the dead, this offering by Patterson would probably translate well on the big screen. It’s a thriller that keeps you gripped from its prologue right down to the preview of the next book.
It follows Detective Alex Cross who has been given a new lease of life: he’s engaged to Brianna Stone and is blissfully happy with his new family.
Until he is called out to investigate what appears to be an assassination, that is.
What follows is a race to capture the murderers before they strike again – as the pile of bodies grows.
The story has three narra-tives which eventually meet at the novel’s end in a heart-stopping climax in which Cross is confronted by a ghost he thought he had laid to rest.
This is classic Patterson: fast-paced, entertaining and exhilarating. – Kamcilla Pillay