The People vs. Alex Cross

The twenty-fifth novel in James Patterson's Alex Cross series follows Alex Cross, a Washington, DC homicide detective and clinical psychologist, as he faces a murder trial while working to find several kidnapped women.

The novel opens in rural Pennsylvania. Twelve-year-old Timmy "Deuce" Walker sneaks through the woods to a party clearing, where he films two naked blonde teenagers in a Toyota Camry. A white van with Dish Network signage roars in, and the girls scream for help as it drives away with them inside. Deuce photographs the van's license plate, but someone clotheslines him on the trail home, breaking his bones. As he lies injured, a man's voice speaks to him menacingly.

The story shifts to Alex Cross preparing for the first day of his murder trial. His wife, Bree Stone, the DC Metro chief of detectives, helps him dress while his family gathers in support: his ninety-something grandmother Nana Mama, his college-age son Damon, his sixteen-year-old daughter Jannie, and his nine-year-old son Ali. They push through reporters and protesters to reach the courthouse, where Alex's lead attorney, Anita Marley, a celebrated defense lawyer, and his niece Naomi Cross, a criminal defense attorney, await him.

The charges stem from an earlier incident. A cult devoted to the late kidnapper Gary Soneji targeted Alex, and a woman named Kimiko Binx led him to an abandoned factory where Soneji's followers confronted him. Alex shot three people, killing Virginia Winslow and Leonard Diggs and paralyzing Claude Watkins. No weapons were found on the victims, and Alex was charged with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder, prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Wills and co-counsel Athena Carlisle.

A flashback establishes parallel storylines. Alex's longtime partner, John Sampson, returns to active duty after recovering from a gunshot wound and is paired with Detective Ainsley Fox. On Sampson's first day back, masked men kidnap blonde student Gretchen Lindel from Washington Latin Public Charter School, killing her debate coach and escaping in a faked police cruiser. Ali records the incident on his phone.

Suspended and awaiting trial, Alex reopens his psychology practice. Among his clients is Detective Tess Aaliyah, who accidentally killed a four-year-old girl during a shootout and now displays suicidal behavior worsened by dangerous interactions among 12 prescriptions from five doctors. Alex convinces Tess's retired detective father, Bernie Aaliyah, to intervene, and Tess eventually enters a psychiatric facility for evaluation and detox.

Meanwhile, Bree, Sampson, and Fox uncover a pattern of missing blonde women, including a dark-web site featuring locked videos of apparent executions. Sampson secretly shares the case with Alex. A man claiming to be Alden Lindel, Gretchen's father, brings Alex a flash drive showing a mock execution of Gretchen. At Quantico, FBI contractor Keith Karl Rawlins, an eccentric dual-PhD analyst known as Krazy Kat, determines the killing sounds were computer-generated, meaning Gretchen is likely alive. A second kidnapping at Georgetown University confirms the pattern: Gunmen take blonde sophomore Patsy Mansfield, killing two brunette students and telling a witness that "nobody pays for brunettes anymore."

Alex discovers the man posing as Lindel is an impersonator. After a session with a new client named Annie Cassidy, who claims to be addicted to romantic infatuation, Alex sees her leave in a car driven by the fake Lindel. Visiting Gretchen's mother, Eliza Lindel, Alex learns the real Alden has end-stage ALS, a degenerative neuromuscular disease, and is bedridden. His dying wish is to see his daughter again.

At trial, the prosecution builds aggressively. An expert witness reveals Alex has fired his weapon at least 31 times, with nine fatal results, when the average officer never fires at all. Binx testifies the victims were unarmed. Watkins then reveals he hid three iPhones inside the factory to film the encounter, and the recovered videos show no guns in the victims' hands.

The defense counters. Anita introduces saliva tests proving Alex had over 140 milligrams of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, in his system, introduced transdermally within hours of the shootings. Binx invokes the Fifth Amendment when questioned about the drug. The breakthrough comes from Ali, who has secretly watched the trial videos over 170 times. He notices the lighting dims before each victim appears and spots a tiny blue laser light lasting 4.7 seconds. Reading autopsy reports against his father's orders, Ali finds adhesive glue and silicone on the victims' palms, consistent with holographic film.

In a dramatic courtroom demonstration, Rawlins explains that a thin polymer encoded with a laser-captured light-field pattern can project a three-dimensional image when illuminated by matching lasers. Beams converge on the medium affixed to Ali's palm, and a holographic revolver appears in his empty hand. When a spotlight switches on, the hologram vanishes, showing how the factory's spotlights hid the images from the cameras. The jury returns a verdict of not guilty on all counts. Judge Priscilla Larch orders the arrest of Binx and Watkins for conspiracy and perjury.

After the trial, the missing-blondes investigation accelerates. Rawlins recovers data from Timmy Walker's water-damaged iPhone, confirming the Dish van's plates. The van, stolen from installer Lourdes Rodriguez, is recovered with blood evidence inside. Alex recognizes Rodriguez's photo as Annie Cassidy, the fabricated client whose story led Alex and Sampson to Philadelphia, where they are ambushed by a shooter. Alex identifies the driver as Nash Edgars, a reclusive, wealthy coder orchestrating the kidnappings, and the shooter as Mike Pratt, the fake Alden Lindel.

Rawlins traces malware in Alex's computer and the FBI system to Edgars, who was expelled from Cal Poly at 17 for assaulting three blonde coeds. Satellite imagery of his Pennsylvania compound reveals structures matching the mock-execution videos. An FBI raid at dawn meets heavy resistance: The compound is fortified with mannequins on heating pads to fool thermal sensors, remote-controlled machine pistols that wound several agents, and explosives that destroy the house. Bree deduces a machine pistol's firing pattern, triggers it with thrown objects until the magazine empties, and rescues critically wounded FBI agent Ned Mahoney.

Alex spots Edgars and Pratt fleeing with Gretchen bound in a utility vehicle. He pursues on an ATV to a remote farm building where seven blonde women hang by their wrists from overhead cables. Edgars films while Pratt holds a curved knife to Gretchen's throat, offering the women death by blade or propane explosion. Alex shoots Pratt, then damages Edgars's rifle. When Edgars opens the gas tanks and pulls the trigger, the weapon backfires and kills him. Overcome by fumes, Alex activates the garage doors and drags all seven women to safety before a helicopter arrives.

In the aftermath, Alex reunites Gretchen with her parents. The real Alden Lindel dies peacefully 10 days later, holding his daughter's hand. All the rescued women survive. At home, Dylan Winslow, the teenage son of Soneji and the slain Virginia Winslow, ambushes Alex and Bree on their porch with a revolver, seeking revenge for his mother's death. Ali, returning from a darts tournament, throws a competition dart into Dylan's neck from 35 feet, disabling him.

Alex decides not to return full-time to Metro, instead becoming an independent contractor for both the FBI and DC Metro while maintaining his counseling practice. In the final scene, he takes Ali to Assateague Island to learn fishing from Bernie while Tess meets and is forgiven by the mother of the child she accidentally killed. Watching from a dune, Alex reflects that small triumphs sustain him despite the darkness he encounters.