Brendan DuBois

The First Lady is a standalone thriller by James Patterson and Brendan Dubois and was first published in 2018. This is a classic thriller with plenty of twists and turns and with the politics involved almost believable that this could happen. When someone is more interested in power, position and legacy.

Harrison Tucker is on the campaign trail as the sitting President he is up for re-election, and everything is going well. He is up in the polls the party is happy congress is happy what more could he want. Well, the woman he is in bed with to start with she just happens not to be the first lady. When he leaves, he does not expect the ambush he suddenly walks into as he steps out of the back door of the hotel. Fortunately for him the secret service agents bundle him in to the back of the car and whisk him away.

The first lady is in the East Wing of the White House smiling at all those who have been working for her for the last four years. When on TV her husband’s affair is the breaking new people can see she is devastated. She tries to keep calm in front of the team. In her office she breaks down in tears and has her personal assistant cancel everything for the day, even more so after her husband tries to ring her from Airforce One. She decides to go out for a relaxing horse ride.

Special Agent Sally Grissom is in charge of the presidential protection team and is summoned to the Oval Office where the President and the Chief of Staff are waiting for her. Harrison Tucker gave her a direct order telling her that the First Lady is missing, and he is charging her with finding her. Parker Hoyt the Chief of Staff is hovering and menacing as the discussion goes on. Grissom is not happy to find out about the missing First Lady from the President and not from her detail.

As Grissom and her second in command head off to where she was last seen to lead the hunt for her little does she know what is going on back at the White House. Parker Hoyt is taking advantage of the situation and can see life might be better if the First Lady were not to be found and sets that in motion while publically supporting the President. When Grissom’s soon to be ex-husband is killed becomes aware of the dark forces in play.

This really is a twisting edge of the seat read, a thriller at its best. Even though you can see who the bad guys are there are plenty of twists and turns even if you think someone has got away with a lot. This really is a thriller at its best.… (more)

In this, the thirty-first Alex Cross thriller for one Alex Cross is only a bit part player where the narrator for once is John Sampson. John Sampson is going to have to save America for a change, to save the American President, Congress, while a quick visit to Afghanistan shoot for a few more bad guys all while not getting killed.

There have been a number of attacks across America and a top security meeting has been called by the President in a secret location. People from the military, intelligence, the federal agencies, Homeland Security and in attendance representatives from Metro PD are Alex Cross and John Sampson. On leaving the meeting Cross is sure he can solve the cause of the terror attacks. He stays up all night brainstorming with pen and paper so that he can see the links from all the attacks. All the military, intelligence and other agencies intelligence analysts cannot find the link. The following day on the way to Metro PD Cross tries to explain what he has found to his friend Sampson he is shot.

While leaving Cross in hospital Sampson goes ‘rogue’ and vows to get to the bottom of these attacks. What he can work out is that it is something to do with a black op when he was a reservist. With the help of the FBI agent and a CIA consultant, Sampson is going to save the whole of humanity, and all without Superman’s cape.

As I said Cross Down goes from thriller to comedy especially with the one man saves the world rubbish. Maybe Patterson needs to calm down a bit.… (more)