That monstrous villain Gary Soneji is back in Cat & Mouse, the fourth book in James Patterson's series about Alex Cross, a police forensic psychologist, but he's not alone. In seeming support of the premise that you can never have too much of a bad thing, Patterson has thrown a second serial killer into the mix: Mr. Smith, a mysterious killer terrorizing Europe while Soneji practices his own brand of evil along the Eastern Seaboard. With two killers to track, Cross has his hands full--and Patterson has another hit.


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From Library Journal
Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross series will be delighted with this latest installment. Reappearing is Christine Johnson, seen in an earlier Cross novel, Jack & Jill (LJ 8/96) and the principal at his children's school, and Cross has fallen in love with her. Gary Soneji, the creepy kidnapper and murderer from another Cross book, has broken out of jail and embarked on a new killing spree, again taunting Cross that he can't stop him. And one of his intended targets is Cross and his family. If that isn't enough, there's a new serial killer whose murders are so inhuman that the news media are suggesting that he's an alien from another planet. All story lines connect in this thriller, whose driving plot will distract you from thinking about its implausibilities and keep you turning pages to the last, when you'll find yourself impatiently awaiting the arrival of the next Cross novel. Recommended for public libraries.?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
Cat & Mouse ... may lack style but it has the raw (and bleeding) material for two thrillers.


From Kirkus Reviews
Archly improbable multiple psychokiller tale featuring Patterson's dignified Washington, D.C., detective, Alex Cross (Jack and Jill, 1996, etc.). Gary Soneji, the hyperactive bad boy who escaped from prison at the end of Along Came a Spider (1993), has AIDS. Before he dies (or even suffers any of the disease's ghastly symptoms), he wants to avenge himself on Cross, who helped capture him. After creeping into the Cross family cellar and ominously rifling the laundry, Soneji, who (we learn) developed a psychotic fixation with trains when he was denied a Lionel set as a child, departs on a series of cinematic massacres along Amtrak Metroliner stops, leaving drops of Cross's blood as clues. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, another psychokiller, calling himself Mr. Smith, is literally cutting a swath through Paris and London, pursued by the fanatically methodical, ponytailed FBI profiler Thomas Pierce. Cross doggedly pursues Soneji to New York, pausing between crime scene visits to romance recently widowed school principal Christine Johnson at the Rainbow Room. Patterson's soulless, breathlessly plotted exercise in bait-and-switch manipulation reaches the first of many false climaxes beneath Grand Central terminal, where Cross apparently kills Soneji. A few pages later, the widower Cross and his family are nearly murdered by a masked man claiming to be Soneji. Enter twitchy Thomas Pierce, who must make one too many references to the Twin Peaks TV show before revealing that he and Mr. Smith might be the same man. A bulky pack of unsolved plot puzzles and ludicrous butchery, ending in a shameless cliff-hanger. Having reached the peak of his popularity, Patterson is spinning his wheels. ($1,000,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Patterson again delivers . . . a champ of the charts. -- Publishers Weekly

Alex Cross is back, and so is his nemesis, mass murderer Gary Soneji -- and he's out for revenge. But first, Gary wants to play, and it's up to Alex to figure out the game. The lives of thousands of innocent commuters hang in the balance. From D.C. to Delaware, New York to Paris, Cat & Mouse will take you on a heart-pounding adventure. It's James Patterson at the top of his game.

SYNOPSIS

The latest of installment of the bestselling Alex Cross series finds James Patterson's intrepid Washington, D.C., homicide detective besieged by not one, but two deadly killers. To make matters worse, Cross has fallen deeply in love with Christine Johnson -- last seen in Jack & Jill -- a relationship that leaves him and his family all the more vulnerable to the deadly game his murderous opponents have devised. This paperback edition also includes a preview chapter from Patterson's new novel, When the Wind Blows.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross series will be delighted with this latest installment. Reappearing is Christine Johnson, seen in an earlier Cross novel, Jack & Jill and the principal at his children's school, and Cross has fallen in love with her. Gary Soneji, the creepy kidnapper and murderer from another Cross book, has broken out of jail and embarked on a new killing spree, again taunting Cross that he can't stop him. And one of his intended targets is Cross and his family. If that isn't enough, there's a new serial killer whose murders are so inhuman that the news media are suggesting that he's an alien from another planet. All story lines connect in this thriller, whose driving plot will distract you from thinking about its implausibilities and keep you turning pages to the last, when you'll find yourself impatiently awaiting the arrival of the next Cross novel. Recommended for public libraries. -- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Library, Randolph, Massachusetts

Library Journal