Summer Reading List: Kiss the Girls

Kiss the Girls (2nd Alex Cross Novel) is our next Summer Reading List selection and OH BOY!!!! Was it a doozie. From the very first page I was hooked. I have seen the movie, of course, and loved the characters. Alex Cross was played by Morgan Freeman, and since he is the narrator in most of the book, I heard Morgan Freeman's deep voice as I read. Ashley Judd (one of my favorites...I hope she gets her chance at an Oscar or Golden Globe sometime...I love reading the books that go with her movies) is Kate and her voice is there, too.

Here is the synopsis:

Kiss the Girls  (1995) is a psychological thriller novel by American writer James Patterson, the second to star his recurrent character Alex Cross, an African-American psychologist.

"Kiss the Girls begins in 1975 Boca Raton, Florida where the boy, Casanova, is killing his first four victims. Elsewhere in 1981 Chapel Hill, North Carolina a young Gentleman Caller kills his first two victims.

Present time - Casanova takes a girl to the woods and leaves her to die. He wears a mask for death. An ongoing theme is that Casanova wears a mask to symbolize his mood.

Alex Cross comes home to find his sister, grandmother, and other relatives waiting for him and is informed that his niece, Naomi "Scootchie" Cross a student at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is missing." (from Wikipedia)

Now Alex Cross is involved. This is where the story gets a bit "out there" so you kind of have to just go with it and not think too much. I really do not know much about how the police and FBI work except what I have seen on Law and Order, CSI, Cold Case, and Without a Trace...but usually on those shows they will not let someone personally involved, like with a relative involved, work a case. But Alex not only works the case, he lives the case....and brings Kate with him.

"In North Carolina Sampson and Cross meet Detectives Nick Ruskin and Davey Sikes who tell Cross that the FBI and DEA are involved and that eight to ten women are missing, all from different states, all have received notes from someone calling himself Casanova.

Casanova picks Kate McTiernan for his next victim and kidnaps her. Kate awakens finding some of her things and Casanova who explains the rules and warns her not to break them. The next time he shows up to be with Kate, she fights back and he knocks her out, afterwards she awakens to find at least six other women locked in rooms near her." (from Wikipedia)

I do not know why I enjoy stories like this...but a mad man holding a bunch of women hostage just drags me in....

Meanwhile..."In Los Angeles, reporter Beth Lieberman is working on a serial killer story about “The Gentleman Caller” who has just raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl. He threatens “bonus kills" to her if his letters are not published. Kyle Craig meets Beth in LA.

Casanova plans to kill Kate because she had broken the rules, but she fights him and gets away. Kate manages to escape, running outside into a forest and jumping off a cliff into the river below. Cross and Ruskin find out she is alive, but she is too injured to speak." (from Wikipedia)

Ok so that is where I will stop with the synopsis...as usually I do not want to give too much away. I think telling you that Kate escapes is not too much of a give-a-way because she is such an important part of the book, however "out there" her involvement in "working the case" might be. I just do not think, in real life, a victim would be going all over the US trying to catch a dangerous killer...but whatever, it makes very good reading.

I think there are parts that just drag on. It is a long book. I enjoyed it and found it very suspenseful, even though I had already seen the movie several times. There are a few parts that I groaned because of the cheesiness or that it was unbelievable, but again...it is entertainment so do not think too much into it.  )It was perfect for a few trips to the water park.  I had my chair set up with fluffy towels and plenty of sun screen and just let the girls (14 year old) do their "thing".)

I would love to pass this book along to someone else to enjoy.  I will draw a name from comments next Friday. (please be in the US). 

Enjoy!!!!

Tiffany