Review - Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Blurb from Goodreads

The year is 1906, and America is segregated. Hatred and discrimination plague the streets, the classroom, and the courts. But in Washington, D.C., Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer, makes it his mission to confront injustice at every turn. He represents those who nobody else dares defend, merely because of the color of their skin. When President Roosevelt, under whom Ben served in the Spanish-American war, asks Ben to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in his home town in Mississippi, he cannot refuse.

The details of Ben's harrowing story--and his experiences with a remarkable man named Abraham Cross--were passed from generation to generation, until they were finally recounted to Alex Cross by his grandmother, Nana Mama. From the first time hear heard the story, Alex was unable to forget the unimaginable events Ben witnessed in Eudora and pledged to tell it to the world. Alex Cross's Trial is unlike any story Patterson has ever told, but offers the astounding action and breakneck speed of any Alex Cross novel

My review

Ben goes back to his hometown with a frosty reception from his father but generally welcomed back by the locals until they get an idea of what he is up to. From then on in Bens eyes are openend to the lynching and murder that is going on in his old tonn and where colour really does matter.

Where murder by colour is looked upon as sport and just and the towns folks given right. Where the KKK is very much alive and in practice. Ben starts to realise that people he thought of as good and even friends are racist murderers or at least willing participants.

The story started really good, I was horrified but hooked and couldn't believe the things that was happening. The story reminded me a lot of John Grishams A Time To Kill and Mississippi Burning (the movie with Gene Hackman).

However after a huge buildup at the end the story went a bit flat, it was almost like right I have written the huge awaited outcome so the last few chapters don't matter. I felt Bens character went from being brave, honest and fighting for the people to someone who didn't care, and what happened after the trial? And for the part of the President that really annoyed me too as after setting everything in motion he was largely missing until briefly stepping in at the end. 3/5 for me



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