Along Came a Spider

Discover the classic thriller that launched the #1 detective series and inspired the #1 streaming series Cross!

Alex Cross is a homicide detective with a PhD in psychology. He works and lives in Southeast Washington, DC, where, in between investigating tough cases, he raises his two young children—with help from his beloved grandmother, Nana Mama. They are the key to his heart—and his own special vulnerabilities.

Jezzie Flanagan is a tall blonde who rides a black BMW motorcycle that she revs to a hundred miles per hour. Her outer shell is tough enough to protect the sensitive information she handles as the superviser of the Secret Service—but is it enough to protect her from her own worst impulses? 

Gary Soneji is every parent’s darkest fear. He’s a mild-seeming man who uses his position to commit the “crime of the century,” which he models after the historic crimes that obsess him. In pursuit of his victims, Soneji has outsmarted the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police. 

He has become Alex Cross’s worst nightmare. In Along Came a Spider, he’s about to become yours.

• “James Patterson does everything but stick our finger in a light socket to give us a buzz in Along Came a Spider.”
  New York Times Book Review
• “Cross is one of the great creations of thriller fiction."
  Dallas Morning News
• “Along Came a Spider will satisfy mystery and thriller fans, as well as students of the human condition.  In Patterson’s Washington, there’s not a cartoonish powerbroker or marble monument in sight... Patterson also creates, in Alex Cross, a lead character rich in dimension... Ultimately, the novel’s foundation is the character of Alex Cross, detective, psychologist, and family man.”
  George P. Pelecanos, Washington Post
• “When it comes to constructing a harrowing plot, author James Patterson can turn a screw all right.”
  New York Daily News
• “Patterson knows how to sell thrills and suspense... In Alex Cross, this Edgar Award winner has created a most compelling hero, a brainy cop afraid neither to bare his emotions nor to admit procedural error.”
  People