Lee Child's Reacher, hands down.  IMHO, Patterson's 15 minutes of fame ended long ago.  Early Pattersons were good, current stuff is crapola.

I vote Reacher.  I only read one Alex Cross book and didn't care for it.  I've read some of Patterson's other stuff and lost interest in him after a few books.  I've read 4 or 5 of the Reacher books and love them.

Yup, I say Reacher, too!

I also vote for Reacher. I tried one Cross book but just didn't enjoy it.

Another one for Reacher.  i have read all of Cross's ... but Reacher is the better character

I've read a few of the Cross books, most recently Cross Country, but have been accumulating Child's Reacher novels based on earlier recomendations here, so I'm glad that the opinions are still so good.

Another vote for Reacher.   I have recently started the series in the past few months and am working on the rest of the series now,  once I start them, I have a hard problem putting them down.  I have read about 70% of the Alex Cross series, but haven't picked up the most recent ones, have kind of lost interest.  

Both my DH and I love the Reacher books!! You can''t go wrong with his books. We both read a Cross book and couldn't figure out the attraction of them.

Just couldn't resist being the descenting voice here.  I could not get into the Reacher novels.  I read the first 3 and they just annoyed the hell out of me.  However, I still adore Patterson's Cross series.

I've not yet read any Lee Child but James Patterson makes me shudder.  He "writes" three or four books a year and all of them end up on the remainder tables of bookstores by the dozen just months later.  I don't get it.  His early stuff was good but anything that is more current than about 1990....**shudder**.

 

JMO, of course.  Lots of people love Patterson.  Faced with this choice, I'd choose Child.

I've read both and Reacher was my preference. I've tried Patterson three times and was disappointed three times so I've sworn off his books. I liked the Reacher books I've read so far and will invest more time in that series.

My vote is  for Cross,  I have only read the first Recher book   I just might have to get back to that series.

Hands down, Jack Reacher!

 I like both.

Cross is better for the psychological aspects, more likely to have forensics stuff in the story (if you like CSI, etc).

Reacher series has more action---I like him because of his military connection too.

Late, but I'll add another vote for Reacher. I'm addicted. I tried 2-3 Patterson books, but they just did not pull me in. Too bad, because there are so many.....

I guess I am in the minority but I adore Alex Cross and James Patterson. I just finished the last book and it was great. I could not put it down and had it read in a day and a half - "Worst Case" was the name of the book. James Patterson co-writes with many different authors, but seems to make it work well.  I have read all of James Patterson's books and very few are disappointing.

Reacher just doesn't grab me. I have read a few and lose interest in them.

I think you would probably enjoy both authors.

I've also kind of lost interest in James Patterson.  His books seem to be churned out like on a factory production line to me with all his co-authors.  I have read a few Alex Cross books and they were ok. 

I really like the Reacher books.  So I'm voting for the Reacher books.

But why don't you just read both?  Read one than the other.  Or read book 1 of each?  Just a suggestion. 

I find most authors repetative if I read too many of their books in a row. 

Definitely Lee Child over here.  MUCH better writing, IMHO.  Patterson has become a "book on tape in the car only" author for me.  Too many amazing books to spend my limited reading time with Cross.  I did definitely enjoy the first few very much but recently not at all.  They just irritated me. The plots should have been good but the character development was lacking, the dialogue is choppy and tries too hard to be cute.  I do keep following the series although the last one I listened to was Double Cross so I'm not really up to date.  Jack Reacher's character is hard to believe at times but I just love him!  :)

Sharon