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Book Review of Jack & Jill (Alex Cross, Bk 3)

Jack & Jill (Alex Cross, Bk 3)
scrapbooklady avatar reviewed on + 472 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3


One of the best Patterson I have read so far, much better than the previous book, "Hide and Seek"... If you've read "Along Came A Spider", you will understand more of the allusions in this one. Alex Cross is working on concurrent cases, one involving murdered children near his son's school, Sojourner Truth, and one involving prominent D.C. personages in which rhyming notes are left signed by the killers, Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill are cold accurate murderers with no discernible pattern - their purpose only becomes evident as their ultimate target becomes known -- the President of the United States. Webs of deceit and mistrust even among the "good guys" make for a chilling puzzle.

Cross draws well-rounded portraits of all the killers, as well as of Cross and the principal of the Truth School. The most important identities are hidden until well near the end. The murderer of the children (who calls himself "nobody") evokes Cross's most conflicting feelings, and ours as well. The ghost of Gary Soneji haunts this book and appears briefly, I will not say when or how. You won't forget this one quickly...