James Patterson: Cross my Heart (Alex Cross #21)

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When an author has written 20 books in a successful series they feel they need to do something different to keep the series alive. This time James Patterson decided to turn the tables on Alex Cross and have a killer hunting him instead of Cross hunting a killer.

Thierry Mulch (not real name) is a psychopathic serial killer with chameleon style abilities who believes he has committed some perfect crimes and got away with them. To bolster his enormous ego he even participates (in disguise) in University seminars that discuss the crimes. Mulch's ego is hurt that Detective Dr Alex Cross has never given up trying to solve the crimes - so hurt that he decides to hunt down Cross and his family, like a predator priming himself for the kill.

One week later Alex Cross’s whole world is crashing down around him - Thierry Mulch has destroyed everything he loved, and everything he believed in and left him a soulless man.

This is a very explicit book with a lot of unnecessary and extreme psychopathic violence which is not for everyone. I can understand why Patterson decided to up the ante and turn the tables to keep the series alive but as far as I am concerned the author made a vital tactical mistake by leaving the story open with a cliffhanger (death-hanger?) ending. Of course this will leave his fans anxiously awaiting his next book in the series - but not me.

This is the first James Patterson book that I have read and I doubt that I will read any more.