As you can imagine, fifteen books down the line he’s a different man, and experiencing his traumas and troubles in chronological order delivers much more than the sum of the parts. One night you get home safe, the next night tragedy strikes and you never, ever feel safe again.Īlex Cross’s life is about as far from humdrum as it gets. One day you’re a trusting soul, the next day your trust has been dashed by circumstances beyond your control. The previous day’s events, however mundane or unimportant, add to the sum of our life experience, and occasionally the influence is profound. Very few of us wake up exactly the same person we were the day before. Things happen to you, and your life changes. That way you enjoy the subtleties of the author’s masterful character development to its full extent. But if you want to make the most of the experience, it’s actually best to read them in the right order. Like many great crime novels, James Patterson’s Alex Cross books can be read in any order.
