Amazon's 'Cross' based on incredible psychological crime thrillers by James Patterson
By Joel Wagler
James Patterson had his first Alex Cross book published in 1993. The 33rd book of the series is set to be published in 2025. There are a lot of reasons why this literary series has been so popular.
Patterson's early books all featured titles tied to nursery rhymes, such as "Along Came a Spider," "Kiss the Girl," and "Jack & Jill. " Those innocuous titles worked because they hid the intense, action-packed content within. It was a brilliant way to set his books apart from the start and make them memorable, but it was the content that locked in audiences.
Amazon dropped its series based on these books this week. The hope is that the series can capture the tone and excellence of the books. It will be a mighty task.
Why you should read the Alex Cross books
Patterson is a master of the psychological crime thriller genre. With a grounded, relatable protagonist and chilling villains, Patterson moves his stories along, often at a tense, break-neck pace that leaves readers turning pages as fast as they can.
While Patterson's name is as high on the list for crime thrillers as legends like Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, and a few others, the Alex Cross books tend to be on the darker side, with brutal, intelligent bad guys.
Hollywood did a horrible job of translating these incredible books into movies that were mostly garbage. The hope is Amazon can do as good a job with this character and books as Amazon did with Michael Connelly's characters from his Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series.
Cross is a police detective with a background in psychology in Washington, D.C. He is a family man who must always consider his family's safety as he navigates through the darkest of his cases. In the books, Cross always approaches his cases from the point of view of what might be inside the minds of the various villains he must pursue with each book.
While each book can stand alone, it is always best to start from the beginning with "Along Came a Spider." There are some continuous storylines, especially concerning his family, and sometimes old villains return in later books. These things won't distract too much from each individual story, but it might leave readers lost on references here and there.
There are other reasons to love Patterson and his books. According to Rachel Ulatowski from The Mary Sue, when Patterson was still a struggling writer with only a few titles under his belt, he was offered a seven-million dollar deal for the rights to the Alex Cross character. He turned them down flat when they wanted to change Cross to a white character instead of being black, as in the books.
Not only can he write, but he has principle too. It makes me like the books even more!
If this genre is one of your favorites, you won't go wrong with this incredible literary series. It will give you everything you are looking for in psychological crime thrillers. Fair warning, though. Once you start, you might not be able to put the books down!