The book under my
critical analysis is “Cross” by James Patterson. Reading James Patterson is
always a good choice to me. Being a curious soul I always find Patterson
offering thrill and excitement to his readers. His books are pacy, page turner
and unputdownable.
His tall, dark and
handsome protagonist is Alex Cross, an FBI officer and psychologist. Despite
the fact that he is a cop and his work involves homicide, criminals and
murderers, he is a very emotional but intelligent man.
The antagonist in
“CROSS” is a psychopath, Butcher. The Butcher’s real name is Michael Sullivan.
In his childhood he was physically abused by his father, who was a butcher by
profession. In his late teens Michael kills his father and joins the Mafia. But
soon Mafia realizes that he is a psycho as he mutilates the dead bodies. They
decided to get rid of him.
On the other hand John
Sampson, Alex Cross’s childhood friend and a cop also, asks for his help in a
case of serial rapist. The brute rapes the girls and threatens them to kill and
disfigure them or slashing their face with scalpel in case they report the
incident. No girl agrees to help in investigation as every victim was scared.
Finally, a lawyer (victim) helps them out by telling them that after raping
her, the man showed her few pictures in which there were dead bodies of the
girls soaked in blood and disfigured.
Somehow Cross makes a
connection and it leads him to the time when his wife, Maria was alive and was
working on the rape case as a social worker. And, apparently Maria knew
something about that rapist due to which she was shot to death.
From here the cat and
mouse chase starts. The Butcher sandwiches between Mafia and Cross. This time
it is not a usual case for Cross. This time the culprit across him is his wife’s
murderer.
The beauty of the story
is that a reader engages in the bloody story too much that along with the
Cross, he also wants Butcher to be killed by the hands of Alex Cross. As they have
seen the emotional and vulnerable side of Cross throughout the novel. And, the
pain he has gone through of single parenting and of loneliness. The excitements
of the readers are being heightened by the brutal killings of Mafia as well.
In the end, the
antagonist meets his end. Though not as much awfully as I was hoping for. I am
a true believer of “you shall reap what you sow”, but the villain died just
like that, after savagely killing near 100 people. I was not satisfied with the
end at all it could have been a lot better.
In the epilogue, after
sometime of the incident, Sampson comes to meet Cross and tells him that it was
not Butcher who killed Maria it was some Jimmy Hats. Sampson has found it out
years ago and has killed him. But he didn’t tell this to Cross knowing the fact
that Cross would regret it for not doing the killing from his hands. Cross
thanks Sampson for always being there for him. Throughout the novel I was
following the idea that the Butcher was a murderer of Maria but somehow Jimmy
Hats who did not play any particular role in the wheel of the plot was Cross’s
man and Cross came to realize it after Hats’ death. It leaves the reader into a
lingering position.
Though the plot was good
and the curiosity and excitement Patterson has created in the reader’s mind is
appreciable, the end was not satisfying which makes it earn an average rate.
It’s a good read if you are a fan of Patterson but the way antagonist tasted
the consequences of his deeds was very abrupt. I wanted him to confess or some
insight of him. It could be a lot better.
Only because of the way
Patterson has ended his story, I would not recommend Cross.
