Cross Country by James Patterson

Several families in the DC area are brutally murdered; one family member was an old flame of Alex’s. Alex gets a lead on the gang of thugs, led by the ‘Tiger’, that’s doing these dastardly deeds and thinks he needs to follow Tiger to Nigeria and Sierra Leone…oh really?? He ends up in tons of trouble along the way (mostly of his own making or stupidity); and when he finally makes it back to Washington DC, he finds his family gone.

This is one of Mr. P’s more gruesome stories, with an ending that will surely lead to the next Cross adventure. But Alex seems to be getting a tad old for all the beatings he takes in this one, not to mention that he never appeared to be the hotshot detective he’s been in other stories.