Kill Alex Cross

It's Patterson at the top of his game…Kill Alex Cross [is told] with a realism that feels like an insider's view of a family tragedy played out on a national stage…Even in the context of a thriller, Patterson is presenting three different families—Cross's, the terrorists' and President Coyle's—each with its own darkly parallel definitions of justice, loyalty and love. Underneath the fast-and-furious action, Patterson is exploring what it means to be a father, a man and, ultimately, a human being in an increasingly complex and dangerous world. —The Washington Post