cover image Kill Alex Cross

Kill Alex Cross

James Patterson, read by Andre Braugher and Zach Grenier. Hachette Audio, unabridged, seven CDs, 7 hrs., $39.98 ISBN 978-1-61113-969-3

There’s one thing listeners can be sure Patterson will not do in this audio edition of the latest installment in the Alex Cross series, and that is kill Alex Cross. This time around, the famous detective finds himself investigating the kidnapping of the president’s children and several terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. Andre Braugher—who smoothly reads sections of the book narrated by Cross—captures the tough, often frustrated, at times furious lawman, but also portrays Cross’s warmer side as he deals with domestic problems involving his children, a streetwise waif, and his cantankerous aunt. Zach Grenier—who reads portions of the book not narrated by Cross—deftly renders a husband and wife terrorist team, while creating a variety of foreign accents. But his major achievement is his interpretation of the psychotic kidnapper whose oral dairy of the abduction and its aftermath is bone-chillingly creepy. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Nov.)