Merry Christmas, Alex Cross

It's no mystery why James Patterson is the world's most popular thriller writer: his uncanny skill in creating living, breathing characters we truly feel for and seamless, lightning-fast plots. I do this for a living, and he still manages to keep me guessing from the first to last page ... Simply put: Nobody does it better.

JEFFREY DEAVER

Behind all the noise and the numbers, we shouldn't forget that no one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it.

LEE CHILD, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

James Patterson is The Boss. End of.

IAN RANKIN, bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus series

I wrote, "Along Came a Spider is the best thriller I've come across in many a year. It deserves to be this season's no. 1 bestseller and should instantly make James Patterson a household name." A household name, indeed.

NELSON DEMILLE

Every once in a while a writer comes along and fundamentally changes the way people read. He or she is so bright, so innovative, so industrious that what they envision and create becomes the measure by which all others are judged. In 1993 one such writer - James Patterson - began to do just that ... James Patterson is the gold standard by which all others are judged.

STEVE BERRY, bestselling author of the Colton Malone series

[Alex Cross] has become one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, a character for the ages.

DOUGLAS PRESTON and LINCOLN CHILD

Alex Cross is a legend.

HARLAN COBEN

Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind.

MICHAEL CONNELLY

Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried... there's no stopping his imagination.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW