alex cross, run

alex cross, run
alex cross series #20
james patterson
little brown & co
published 2013

Top plastic surgeon Elijah Creem is renowned for his skills in the operating room, and for his wild, no-expense-spared "industry parties," bringing in underage exotic dancers and models for nights of drugs, champagne, and uninhibited sex. That is, until Detective Alex Cross busts one of Creem's lavish soirees and ruins his fun. Now Creem is willing to do anything to avoid going to jail.

But Alex doesn't have time to dwell on that case. A beautiful woman has been found murdered in her car, a lock of her hair viciously ripped off. Then a second woman is found hanging from a sixth-floor window with a brutal scar slashed across her stomach. When a third mutilated body is discovered, rumors of three serial killers on the loose send Washington D.C. into an all-out frenzy.

Alex is under so much pressure to solve these three grim cases that he hasn't noticed that someone else investigating him-someone so obsessed and so twisted that they'll do anything-ANYTHING- to get the vengeance they require.

Alex makes some dumb moves in the installment of James Patterson's longest running series.  But moreover, the story seemed to be lacking a bit in excitement.  The killers are kind of one-dimensional and boring.  The two 'main' cases were carbon copies of everything else you've ever read.  The third case that Alex doesn't even know if happening was much more interesting and Patterson didn't even really get into it too much.

Maybe this is proof positive that Patterson is completely losing his touch.  These are the only books that he writes by himself and the last few just haven't been as good as they used to be.