“JAMES PATTERSON DOES EVERYTHING BUT STICK OUR FINGER IN A LIGHT SOCKET TO GIVE US A BUZZ. ”

--New York Times

“CROSS IS ONE OF THE GREAT CREATIONS OF THRILLER FICTION. ”

--Dallas Morning News

“ALONG CAME A SPIDER IS WRITIEN SIMPLY,POWERFULLY In Patterson’s Washington, there’s not a cartoonish power broker or marble monument in sight Ultimately, the novel’s foundation is the character of Alex Cross, detective, psychologist, and family man.”

--Washington Post Book World

“WHEN 1T COMES TO CONSTRUCTING A HARROWING PLOT, AUIHOR JAMES PATIERSON CAN TURN A SCREW ALL RIGHT.”

--New York Daily News

...begins with the double lddnapping of the daughter of a famous Hollywood actress and the young son of the Secretary of the Treasury. And that’s only the beginning! Gary Soneji is a murderous serial lddnapper who wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the female supervisor of the Secret Service who completes one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read.

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Let’s Play Make-Believe(1932)

Part One: Maggie Rose and Shrimpie(1992)

Part Two: The Son of Lindbergh

Part Three: The Last Southern Gentleman

Part Four: Remember Maggie Rose

Part Five: The Second Investigation

Part Six: The Cross House

Epilogue: Frontier Justice

Book One: DAVID AND MELANIE