Hope to Die

Alex Cross's family has been taken. His wife, his grandmother, his children — all gone, and the man who has them is a psychotic genius who has been waiting years to play this game. The twenty-second Alex Cross novel is structured as an extended hostage negotiation, forcing Cross to balance his detective's mind against a father's terror while navigating demands that grow increasingly impossible. The preceding novel set this trap; Hope to Die is the spring.

Michael Boatman and Scott Sowers share the narrative duties, a two-voice approach that suits the book's dual-threat structure. Boatman's Alex carries the weight of paternal desperation convincingly, and Sowers handles the secondary perspectives with enough distinctiveness to keep the story's geography clear. At just under 10 hours, this is a propulsive entry that moves as fast as the situation it depicts demands.