Book number 12 is Along Came a Spider by James Patterson, It's published by Harper Collins and is available from amazon in paperback and hardback and for the first time that I've found its available on the amazon kindle (which is US only at the moment) and audiobook
Along came a spider is the first of the Alex Cross series by James Patterson so as you can probably guess its been out a while, (1993) Like many books its been made in to a movie, which starred Morgan Freeman as Detective Alex Cross, Until recently I'd not seen the film, but I had read the book, and I've got to say the book is MUCH MUCH better than the film, there are plot lines in the book that have been ignored in the film, as well as characters that have vanished or lost whole significance to the underlying story, If you've seen the film and thought "Ive seen it, I'll give it a miss" your right you do know the overall story but don't miss out on the rest of it, pick it up and have a read.
Now then, now that's out the way I've got to say I'm hooked on the Alex Cross series of books, this book in particular is the one that I got hooked on first of all to the point I couldn't put it down, since then I've read almost all the Alex Cross series, (which I'll be posting about at a later date)
Much like the Film, Detective Alex Cross, is chasing after a serial killer called Gary Sonji,
Considering how long the book has been out, it'd be easy for me to give away what happens, which I'm hopefully not going to do, what I will say though is that this book, feels much faster paced than the film, and you don't get stuck in the minutia of the story. Instead the book sticks to the who's and the why's of the story and keeps you hooked rather than spelling out the tedious paperwork that the police have to do. Because of this you get hoisted by the scruff of the neck and thrown through the book!.
Over the whole of the Alex Cross series, the characters develop and change growing with the story, saying that though you don't have to start with the 1st one and work through, you can just pick up any and really enjoy it, there are thing's in some of the other books that are linked to this book which is only really a reference nothing that you'd have to know going in to the book's as everything you need to know is generally flashed over to make sure your up to speed, What I'm going all around the houses' to say is that the books stand on their own merit and can be read alone or in the series without the feeling that you've missed out on something
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you its a "must read", or "you don't know what your missing", Because the truth is its a big dumb action film of book. Reading it is very satisfying and enjoyable, its like a big mac for your brain, you know you should be feeding your brain on cress, tomato and boiled potato style books to keep it in shape, but sometimes stuffing your self with some thing like this is just what the Dr ordered... Dr Alex Cross that is.
