Cross Country by James Patterson

Paperback 2008, 403 pages
Somerville, MA. May 2, 2010.

In this novel Alex Cross was involved in pursuing a vicious gang of teenagers led by someone with the nickname "Tiger" who first murdered his friend Ellie Cox and eventually kidnapped his family. Turns out Cox was a journalist who learned from a Nigerian journalist Adanne Tansi a plot by a couple of rogue CIA agents who work with various countries to destabilize Nigeria. The gang consisted of Janjaweed militia who also killed for hire. Cross traveled to Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Sudan, and in so doing saw a lot of suffering by the various African people and the cruelty of some. After many misadventures starting with his first three days after landing at the Lagos airport and many near-death encounters with various bad guys, he headed back to Washington DC just as his family was being kidnapped. He eventually killed the Tiger and one of the rogue agents, and got the other arrested, and his family miraculously survived the ordeal.

The plot just stretches credibility beyond the breaking point. It's difficult to imagine why Cross didn't die as he was up against the militia, gangs, corrupt police, fake clergyman, and rogue CIA agents. These people would kill anyone in their way without hesitation but would spare Cross's life. I don't know what drove Patterson to this level of suffering and violence, one possible reason is he needed a forum to tell the world how bad things are in parts of Africa. On that point he succeeded: despite his many statements that many people are kind and helpful, I am sure many after reading this novel would hesitate to visit those parts of Africa. And the violence was very graphic, bordering on gratuitous. So perhaps good intentions, but the result may not be quite what he intended.

One thing about Cross that I didn't know, though, is that he is African-American. And we know that because people in Africa called him "A White Man". I am quite sure this was used in a movie (and probably the corresponding book) about how American Indians treated a black soldier.

This book is better than most (if not all) of the other Patterson books I have read. Probably the high marks as a fantasy overcome the low marks as a detective story.