Cross My Heart

A brilliant criminal has studied Alex Cross with obsessive thoroughness, understanding that the best way to destroy a man who confronts evil professionally is to threaten what he loves most. The design is intricate and patient, and when it activates, Cross finds himself trapped by the nature of his own strength: his love for his family is both his anchor and the lever being used against him. Cross My Heart, the twenty-first novel in the series, strips the formula down to its most essential stakes and offers one of the most emotionally direct entries in Patterson's long-running franchise.

Michael Boatman and Tom Wopat share the narration, and their contrasting registers suit the novel's dual focus on Cross and his adversary. Boatman brings warmth and gravity to Cross's family scenes while Wopat gives the antagonist a chilling deliberateness. The novel is structured around a specific kind of suspense that works particularly well in audio, where the intimacy of the performed word tightens the vise on the listener.