I, Alex Cross [Paperback] Patterson, James

Alex Cross's niece is murdered in a drive-by shooting in Southeast DC, and suddenly the cases he's working—high-profile, high-stakes—mean nothing. This is personal. Cross has always been the steady hand, the detective who keeps his cool, but grief and rage have a way of burning through protocol. Patterson strips away the procedural gloss here and gives you raw vengeance dressed up as justice. The chapters are short, the pacing is relentless, and the villain is genuinely unsettling. It's pulp in the best sense—economical, brutal, and designed to be finished in one sitting. If you've never read an Alex Cross book, this one works as a standalone. If you're a longtime reader, this is where Patterson reminds you why you started.