Mary’s Pick
June 2020
HOPE TO DIE
James Patterson
Little Brown and Company, Publisher, 378 pages
James Patterson writes thriller novels. Throughout his books there are consistent characters, namely his family, Nana Mama and Thierry Mulch. Alex Cross is a top Washington, D.C. detective and well known criminal psychologist that takes on complex cases. This book is the sequel to Cross My Heart. In that book his entire family has been kidnapped. Mulch has Cross and his whole family under surveillance and is assembling a database of information about them all. There is a bug planted inside his house that will force Cross to stay in as he’s sending photos of his family being murdered. As it turns out the photos are fake and now he believes they may still be alive. This is the cliffhanger and he promises that he will get them back. I suggest to read this first.
Now to the sequel, Hope to Die: Detective Cross is forced to play the most heart- wrenching game of his career. Mulch (who is a psychopath) is being driven by years of hatred and revenge and has now threatened to kill all of them, ultimately breaking Cross forever!
Cross sustains a head injury and he ultimately becomes a liability in his current role on the case. He is forced to turn his badge and gun over and report to a hospital for treatment. He has been asked to come off the case and allow his fellow workers to pursue the killer. Alex is unable to sit still and finds a way out of the hospital to pursue finding his family. Alex begins to investigate the Thierry Mulch who supposedly died as a young man. While doing this investigation he meets a former detective who’s always believed that Mulch murdered his father and faked his own death. Atticus’ daughter, a big shot TV producer now teams up with Alex to help fake the first murder that Thierry has demanded for ransom.
Cross hasn’t seen any trace of his family. The police say they may have found Bree’s (his wife) body but the corpse is so badly battered, it can’t be recognized. He asks himself 2 questions: Is this his wife? Or is Mulch toying with him? Mulch has been able to manipulate the crime scene evidence as he likes. Cross discovers that evidence from another crime was purposely placed to lead police astray. Does Mulch have help? If yes. then there is a sinister alliance at work against Cross.
Cross isn’t fighting this alone. Because of past work he has the help of someone in the FBI, as well as various other people who are new in his books, as he takes on the pursuit of this case. Time is running short for Bree, Nana Mama and the children; while Alex finds what kind of man he really is. It takes every ounce of his strength to not buckle. Cross is unable to defeat the hatred and darkness building inside of him. As he faces dealing with the loss of his loved ones being gone, he turns to “vengeance.”
The book continues as Cross pursues the hunt to find his family alive. The ending is a nail biter for sure you can’t put the book down which is a hallmark of Patterson’s writing. For fast paced read that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end of both books, pick these up for a good summer read.