Cross my Heart by James Patterson

Every once in awhile I remind my friends and family that I am absolutely crazy.  For example, how did I celebrate the 21st book in my favorite series?  By rereading the entire series in order before allowing myself to read the newest, of course!

Let me tell non-Alex Cross readers a bit about the series before I launch into my diatribe about the newest book.

• There are 21 amazing titles in this series
• They do NOT need to be read in order
• The series follows Alex Cross, a detective from Washington DC who tackles insanely creepy homicide cases
• Roses are Red is still my ABSOLUTE favorite book....like, EVER
• You will lose sleep worrying about crazy bad guys like the Mastermind
• Alex Cross is someone you can learn about family from
• Nana Mama is someone you can learn parenting from
• Alex Cross' Trial takes a break from Alex and his family to give us an utterly amazing account of the mistreatment of people in the South after the Civil War

When I was younger and reading this series for the first time, I clearly remember honestly believing the series would end on Violets are Blue.  I remember telling anyone who would listen that this made logical sense for many reasons, including the fact that it was the first title James Patterson had split (Roses are Red preceded Violets are Blue).  All these years-and titles-later, I believe I was right about the theory but a little early.  

Enter Cross my Heart.  This book was the most intense in the series in a long time.  I say this as the person who literally just read them one right after another like someone who needed to read the words on the page to survive.  Cross my Heart took Alex somewhere we only worried he would have to go in the deepest recesses of our minds.  Alex becomes so real to the readers during this series that you feel the pain and desperation of the leading man when the book takes a terrible turn.  

It is my new opinion, sad as I am to imagine it, that Mr. Patterson will pen ONE more Alex Cross novel.  It would be fitting for this book to be titled Hope to Die, as rumors are hinting at.  It would be fitting for this novel to have a bittersweet ending.  As someone who is not ready to let Alex go-I'm certainly not ready to let it end the way Cross my Heart ended.  

So, until the next novel I not-so-patiently sit waiting for news and worrying about the Cross family.