ALEX CROSS’S TRIAL
by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo
Little, Brown & Company
August 2009
Summary: The year is 1906, and America is segregated. Hatred and discrimination plague the streets, the classroom, and the courts. But in Washington, D.C., Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer, makes it his mission to confront injustice at every turn. He represents those who nobody else dares defend, merely because of the color of their skin. When President Roosevelt, under whom Ben served in the Spanish-American war, asks Ben to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in his hometown in Mississippi, he cannot refuse.
The details of Ben’s harrowing story — and his experiences with a remarkable man named Abraham Cross — were passed from generation to generation, until they were finally recounted to Alex Cross by his grandmother, Nana Mama. From the first time he heard the story, Alex was unable to forget the unimaginable events Ben witnessed in Eudora and pledged to tell it to the world. Alex Cross’s Trial is unlike any story Patterson has ever told, but offers the astounding action and breakneck speed of any Alex Cross novel.
Say what you want about James Patterson (and since he recently signed an 11 book deal with Hachette, people certainly have a lot to say) but the man is a machine! He writes page-turners! There isn’t any subject or plot that he can’t tackle, and tackle it he does! His latest, ALEX CROSS’S TRIAL, is fantastic! Patterson (and his co-writer DiLallo) are taking on the history books with his latest Alex Cross installment. Fans of the Alex Cross series may initially be put off that this isn’t a present day Alex Cross suspense story, but there is so much within the pages of this historical novel that you will not be disappointed. Patterson explores racial issues at the turn of the century in the deep South and will certainly open many eyes to the injustices and tragedies that were present. Definitely straying from the usual form, but Patterson succeeds in proving he is the master of all storytellers!
