James Patterson’s Alex Cross Books in Order
James Patterson’s Alex Cross Books in Order
Discover the riveting thriller series featuring Detective Alex Cross written by bestselling author James Patterson. Set in Cross’ gritty beat in the heart of Washington D.C., the series follows the Metropolitan Police Department detective as he hunts criminals, solves grisly murders and strives to protect his family.
Here you’ll find each one of Patterson’s incredible novels in reverse chronological order, starting with Along Came a Spider (1993) and continuing all the way to the latest bestselling release. With this list, you can be sure to never miss a moment in the life of Alex Cross.
Critical Praise for James Patterson’s Alex Cross Series
“James Patterson is to suspense is what Danielle Steel is to romance.” – New York Daily News
“Alex Cross is a legend.” – Harlan Coben
“Behind all the noise and the numbers, we shouldn’t forget that no one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent–which is what James Patterson has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it.” – Lee Child
“It’s no mystery why James Patterson is the world’s most popular thriller writer: his uncanny skill in creating living, breathing characters we truly feel for and seamless, lightning-fast plots. I do this for a living, and he still manages to keep me guessing from the first to last page. Simply put: Nobody does it better.” – Jeffery Deaver
“James Patterson is The Boss. End of.” – Ian Rankin
Alex Cross Books From Newest to Oldest
The list of Supreme Court candidates is highly confidential—until it becomes evidence in Detective Alex Cross’s toughest investigation.
One candidate is gunned down. A second is stabbed. A third is murdered near midnight on a city street.
Cross is the FBI’s top expert in criminal behavior. For the sake of his family, his city, and his country, he must put himself in the most dangerous place there is: inside the mind of a diabolical killer.
An airport killer targeting pilots expands his scope. Alex Cross Must Die. “Drop whatever you’re doing, Detective Cross, and head to Reagan Airport,” DC Metro Police dispatch says. “A jet just crashed and exploded on the runway. The chief and the FBI want you and John Sampson there pronto.” Cross and Sampson race to the crash site. The plane didn’t fail—it was shot down by a stolen Vietnam War–era machine gun. The list of experts who can operate the weapon is short. And time before another lethal strike runs even shorter. Especially for Detective Cross.
Cross and Sampson aren’t the only ones investigating.
Also in on this most intriguing case is the world’s bestselling true-crime author, who sees patterns everyone else misses.
The writer, Thomas Tull, calls the Family Man murders the perfect crime story. He believes the killer may never be caught.
Cross knows there is no perfect crime. And he’s going to hunt down the Family Man no matter what it takes.
Until the Family Man decides to flip the narrative and bring down Cross and his family.
Dr. Alex Cross and Detective John Sampson venture into the rugged Montana wilderness—where they will be the prey.
They’re not on the job, but on a personal mission.
Until they’re attacked by two rival teams of assassins, controlled by the same mastermind who has stalked Alex and his family for years.
Darkness falls. The river churns into rapids. Shots ring out through the forest.
The murder of a glamorous DC socialite becomes Alex Cross’s deadliest case since Along Came a Spider.
Kay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public—she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and the ex-wife of the vice president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private school, in the middle of the night, with the man who was the head of that school? Who shot them both, point blank, and why? The shocking double homicide is blazed across the internet, TV, newspapers—and across Alex Cross’s mind. Kay had been his patient once. And maybe more.While John Sampson of DC Metro Police investigates the last movements of Christopher Randall, the educator killed along with Kay Willingham, detective Alex Cross and FBI special agent Ned Mahoney find unanswered questions from Willingham’s past, before she arrived in DC and became known in DC society as someone who could make things happen. They travel to Alabama to investigate Kay’s early years. There they find a world of trouble, corruption, and secrets, all of them closed to outsiders like Cross and Mahoney.
Kay had many enemies, but all of them seemed to need her alive. The harder the investigators push, the more resistance they find when they leave behind the polite law offices and doctors’ quarters of the state capital. Alex Cross will need to use all his skills as a doctor, a detective, and a family man to prevent that resistance from turning lethal . . . again.
In a Virginia penitentiary, Alex Cross and his partner, John Sampson, witness the execution of a killer they helped convict. Hours later, they are called to the scene of a copycat crime. A note signed “M” rests on the corpse. “You messed up big time, Dr. Cross.” Was an innocent man just put to death? Alex soon realizes he may have much to answer for, as “M” lures the detective out of the capital to the sites of multiple homicides, all marked with distressingly familiar details—details that conjure up decades-old cases. Details that conjure up Cross family secrets. Details that make clear that M is after a prize so dear that—were the killer to attain it—Alex’s heart would no longer have reason to beat.
A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper’s bullet strikes a target in the heart of D.C. Alex Cross’s wife, Bree Stone, must either solve the case or lose her position as the city’s newly elevated chief of detectives. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper’s strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?
When his former partner Sampson shows up needing his help, Cross jumps at the chance, even if it may end up costing him what’s left of his career. When a string of young, blonde women go missing, the investigation leads Cross and Sampson to the most depraved, darkest corners of the internet, where murder is just another form of entertainment.
As the prosecution presents its case, and the nation watches, even those closest to Cross begin to doubt his innocence. If he can’t convince his own family that he didn’t pull the trigger with intent to kill, how can he hope to persuade a jury? But even with everything on the line, Cross will do whatever it takes to stop a dangerous criminal . . . even if he can’t save himself. Struggling to prove his own innocence and uncover the truth lurking online, Cross must risk everything to save his most at-risk patient of all: himself.
Washington, DC, has never been more dangerous. After shots pierce the tranquil nighttime calm of Rock Creek Park, a man is dead: what looks at first like road rage might be something much more sinister. But Alex has only just begun asking questions when he’s called across town to investigate a new murder, one that hits close to home: his former boss and the beloved mentor of Alex’s wife, Bree.
Now there’s a killer on the loose, a long list of possible suspects, a city in panic, and nobody in charge of the besieged police force. . . until Bree gets tapped for the job.
As Bree scrambles to find her footing and close two high-profile cases, new violence stuns the capital. What should be a time for her to rely on Alex for support and cooperation is instead a moment of crisis in their marriage as well as their city when their investigative instincts clash and their relationship reaches a breaking point.
And the fiendish mind behind all the violence has appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner, with a terrifying master plan he’s only begun to put in motion. To beat him at his own game, Alex and Bree must take the law back into their own hands before he puts them both out of commission . . . permanently.
When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin’s innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he’s ever known.
Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he’s hot on the trail of both a brutal killer, and the truth about his own past-and the answers he finds might be fatal.
Cross’s family-his loving wife Bree, the wise and lively Nana Mama, and his precious children-have been ripped away. Terrified and desperate, Cross must give this mad man what he wants if he has any chance of saving the most important people in his life. The stakes have never been higher: What will Cross sacrifice to save the ones he loves?
Widely praised by the greatest crime and thriller writers of our time, Cross My Heart set a jaw-dropping story in motion. Hope to Die propels Alex Cross’s greatest challenge to its astonishing finish, proving why Jeffery Deaver says “nobody does it better” than James Patterson.
When the ones Cross loves are in danger, he will do anything to protect them. But if he does anything to protect them, they will die. Cross My Heart is the most powerful Alex Cross novel ever, propelled by the ever-ingenious mind of James Patterson, the world’s #1 bestselling writer.
Detective Alex Cross arrests renowned plastic surgeon Elijah Creem for sleeping with teenage girls. Now, his life ruined, Creem is out of jail, and he’s made sure that no one will recognize him-by giving himself a new face.
A young woman is found hanging from a sixth-floor window, and Alex is called to the scene. The victim recently gave birth, but the baby is nowhere to be found. Before Alex can begin searching for the missing newborn and killer, he’s called to investigate a second crime. All of Washington, D.C., is in a panic, and when a third body is discovered, rumors of three serial killers send the city into an all-out frenzy.
Alex’s investigations are going nowhere, and he’s too focused on the cases to notice that someone has been watching him-and will stop at nothing until he’s dead. With white-hot speed, relentless drama, and hairpin turns, Alex Cross, Run is James Patterson’s ultimate thrill ride.
The President’s son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high-up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark.
A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Alex discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever experienced. As his window for solving both crimes narrows, Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes-one that may alter the fate of the entire country.
Detective Alex Cross and Bree’s wedding plans are put on hold when Alex is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington D.C.’s most corrupt: a dirty congressmen and an underhanded lobbyist. Next, the elusive gunman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories: is the marksman a hero or a vigilante?
The case explodes, and the FBI assigns agent Max Siegel to the investigation. As Alex and Siegel battle over jurisdiction, the murders continue-and they won’t stop until Cross and his family are gone for good. With a supercharged blend of action, deception, and suspense, Cross Fire is James Patterson’s most visceral and exciting Alex Cross novel ever.
Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved niece was brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington, D.C.’s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer’s only victim.
The hunt for the murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to Washington’s most infamous club-a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. The killer could be one of their patrons, one of Washington’s elite who will do anything to keep their secrets buried.
With astonishing plot twists and electrifying revelations that will keep readers on the edge of their seat, I, Alex Cross is the master of suspense at his sharpest and best.
When the home of Alex Cross’s oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he’s chasing his most dangerous enemy yet. As Alex and his girlfriend, Brianna Stone, become entangled in the deadly Nigerian underworld of Washington D.C., what they discover is shocking: a stunningly organized gang of lethal teenagers headed by a powerful, diabolical man-the African warlord known as the Tiger. Just when the detectives think they’re closing in on the elusive murderer, the Tiger disappears into thin air. Tracking him to Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Alone.
As victims are made into gruesome spectacles citywide, inducing a media hysteria, it becomes clear to Alex that the man he’s after is a genius of terror-and he’s after fame. The killer has the whole city by its strings-and he’ll stop at nothing to become the most terrifying star that Washington D.C. has ever seen.
Years later, Alex is making a bold move in his life. He has left the FBI and set up practice as a psychologist once again. His life with Nana Mama, Damon, Jannie, and little Alex finally feels like it’s in order. He even has a chance at a new love.
Then Cross’s former partner, John Sampson, calls in a favor. Now Cross must go on the hunt for the most cunning, psychotic killer he has ever faced. . . and it pushes him dangerously close to the breaking point.
FBI Agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family in Disneyland when he gets a call: a well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an email describing the murder in vivid details. Alex quickly learns that this is not an isolated incident. The killer, known as Mary Smith, has done this before and plans to kill again.
Right from the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever been confronted with before. Is this the plan of an obsessed fan or a spurned actor, or is it part of something much more frightening? Now members of Hollywood’s A-list fear they’re next on Mary’s list, and the case grows by blockbuster proportions as the LAPD and FBI scramble to find a pattern before Mary can send one more chilling update.
Alex Cross is on vacation in San Francisco with his girlfriend, Jamilla Hughes, when he gets the call. World leaders have just four days to prevent an unimaginable cataclysm. Racing down the hairpin turns of the Riviera in the most unforgettable finale James Patterson has ever written, he confronts the truth of the Wolf’s identity, a revelation that even Cross himself may be unable to survive.
Alex Cross’s first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues baffled. Across the country, men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappearing completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it looks as if a shadowy figure called the Wolf-a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organized crime-is behind this business.
Even as he admires the FBI’s vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau’s clumsiness and caution when it’s time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track the Wolf and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive. As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home too. His ex-fiancee, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life-and not for the reasons he might have hoped.
Sampson is certain his friend has been framed, and Alex’s investigation turns up evidence overlooked-or concealed-by the military authorities. Drawing on their years of street training and an almost telepathic mutual trust, Cross and Sampson go deep behind military lines to confront the most terrifying-and deadly-killers they have ever encountered. Behind these three highly skilled killing machines there appears to be an even more threatening controller. Discovering the identity of this lethal genius will prove to be Cross’s most terrifying challenge ever.
On his visits home, Alex must confront another, more harrowing mystery: what’s the matter with Nana Mama? As he explores the possibility of a new relationship with a woman who offers him new hope, Alex must also confront the fact that his beloved grandmother is only human.
Then, as Cross is called in to take on the case, the carnage takes off, leaving a trail of bodies across America and sweeping him to Savannah, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angeles as his nemesis, the merciless criminal known as the Mastermind, stalks him, taunts him, and once again, threatens everything he holds dear…
In a series of terrifying crimes, bank robbers have been laying out precise demands when they enter the building-and then killing the bank employees and their families if those instructions are not followed to the letter.
Detective Alex Cross takes on the case, certain that this is no ordinary bank robber at work; the pathological need for control and perfection is too great. Cross is in the midst of a personal crisis at home, but the case becomes all-consuming as he learns that the Mastermind is plotting one huge, last, perfect crime.
Alex Cross is happy, but his happiness is threatened by a series of chilling murders—murders with a pattern so twisted, it leaves investigators reeling. Cross’s ingenious pursuit of the killer produces a suspect: a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shafer.
But proving that Shafer is the murderer becomes a potentially deadly task. As the diplomat engages in a brilliant series of surprising countermoves, in and out of the courtroom, Alex and his fiancée become hopelessly entangled with the most memorable nemesis Alex Cross has ever faced.
Gary Soneji, a dying prison escapee, is looking for revenge on Cross, while another insane killer is pursued by Thomas Augustine Pierce-a brilliant and relentless detective who may even be better than Cross. As the bodies pile up, and Cross is nearly murdered in his own home, the game of cat and mouse leads to one final trap. . .
The body count is high, the tension the highest, and the two killers on the loose are watching every move their pursuers make. Who is the cat, and who is the mouse? What and where is the final trap? And who survives?
In the middle of the night, a controversial U.S. senator is found murdered in bed in his Georgetown pied-a-terre. The police turn up only one clue: a mysterious rhyme signed “Jack and Jill” promising that this is just the beginning. Jack and Jill are out to get the rich and famous, and they will stop at nothing until their fiendish plan is carried out.
Meanwhile, Washington, D. C. homicide detective Alex Cross is called to a murder scene only blocks from his house, far from the corridors of power where he spends his days. The victim: a beautiful little girl, savagely beaten and deposited in front of the elementary school Cross’s son attends. No one in Washington is safe-not children, not politicians, not even the President of the United States. Only Alex Cross has the skills and the courage to crack the case, but will he discover the truth in time?
Jezzie Flanagan is the first woman ever to hold the highly sensitive job as supervisor of the Secret Service in Washington. Blond, mysterious, seductive, she’s got an outer shell that’s as tough as it is beautiful. She rides her black BMW motorcycle at speeds of no less than 100 mph. What is she running from? What is her secret?
Alex Cross and Jezzie Flanagan are about to have a forbidden love affair-at the worst possible time for both of them. Because Gary Soneji, who wants to commit the “crime of the century,” is playing at the top of his game. Soneji has outsmarted the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police. Who will be his next victim?
Gary Soneji is every parent’s worst nightmare. He has become Alex Cross’s nightmare. And now, reader, he’s about to become yours.
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