REVIEW: Kiss the Girls

Kiss the Girls
Author: James Patterson

Alex Cross is a skilled, and dedicated, detective from Washington, DC. When he discovers his niece is missing from her college in NC and might possibly have been kidnapped by a serial killer, he jumps into the case with NC authorities and the FBI. Women are disappearing. All beautiful, very intelligent women. Some are found murdered. And others are just gone, with no clues as to their whereabouts. When one victim escapes, Alex and the FBI find out that this case might be much more complex and dangerous. The NC kidnappings and murders might be related to similar crimes in California.  Alex and the FBI race to solve the case and find the missing victims before more of them are killed.

I am really enjoying this series. I read the first book because it was listed as part of the Great American Read, and continued on because I like the characters, especially Alex Cross. Cross is a complex character. He is a ruthless investigator, but a kind and gentle father to his two kids. The plots are interesting and very suspenseful. Kiss the Girls is not for the feint of heart. It contains quite graphic depictions of torture, rape, kidnapping and abuse. There was one scene with an assault involving a snake that made me have to turn the audio book off for awhile and watch a Disney movie. It was.......intense and disturbing. The bad guy in this story is crazier than an S-house rat....and very, very dangerous. The point of view jumps around quite a bit ..... changing from victims, to killer, to Alex Cross. I'm not usually a fan of stories that jump around like that, but for this book, it worked perfectly. It just heightened the suspense, and developed the characters. The crimes were chilling and horrible. The story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat.

I usually listen to audio books outside while I do yard work. But this one was a bit too intense and graphic. It wasn't appropriate for listening to outside because our neighbors on one side have small children, and the neighborhood gossips are on the other side. I had visions of the gossips calling around telling people I was listening to dirty sex books in my front yard. ha ha.  I chose to enjoy this suspenseful story in the privacy of my kitchen, saving me from any neighbor side eye. :) Very, very good book -- just a note of caution for those who have small kids at home or have qualms about books with rape/torture themes.

Narrated by Michael Kramer, the audio book version I listened to is just shy of 11 hours long. I would have preferred a black voice actor narrating, but Kramer did a good job. I have hearing loss, but was easily able to hear and understand the entire book.

I'm definitely going to read more of this series! Very enjoyable so far! The books are bestsellers for a reason. I wish I had started reading sooner! Not sure why I never read this series. Fixing my error now!