• The Storyteller is carefully plotting and executing murders primarily of high-profile celebrities. Calling herself Mary Smith, she emails a reporter at the Los Angeles Times providing details of her thoughts and actions as she targets her victims.

• Mary is a concerned mother of three living in California. Her modest funds do not permit many extras.

• Dr. Alex Cross holds a Ph.D. in psychology and is a former detective with the Washington, D.C. police. He’s now an FBI agent. He arranges a trip to Disneyland for his three children, his grandmother, and himself. While still in California, he joins the Los Angeles police and the local FBI office in the search for Mary who appears to be that rarity – a female serial killer. Other law enforcement officers become convinced the clues point towards a particular suspect. Cross is not as certain.

Meanwhile, Alex Cross’s personal life is messy and getting messier. His West Coast girlfriend finds another. His ex-lover and mother of his youngest child, little Alex, wants to regain custody.

Between family issues, work demands, and the Mary murders, Alex has his hands full.

There is no doubt that Mary, Mary is a must-read book for fans of earlier Alex Cross novels. Even the author’s most devoted fans, however, may find this one somewhat disappointing. The multi-thread murder plot is its strongest asset, but the relatively short length in spite of its nearly 400 pages doesn’t allow time or space to elaborate and not everything is neatly concluded by the last page.

Aging baby-boomers with reading glasses may appreciate the large type and generous spacing between the lines of Mary, Mary, but the fading vision-friendly format cannot disguise its lack of depth compared to previous books in the series. This is Alex Cross Lite.

Readers may also experience a sense of near-vertigo – never before has Dr. Alex Cross seemed so similar to Jonathan Kellerman’s psychologist-hero Dr. Alex Delaware. The hands-on crime-fighting hero of earlier installments is secondary to the cerebral psychologist in Mary, Mary.

Mary, Mary is already at the top of the best seller lists, but those who haven’t yet bought it might be well advised to borrow it from their public library or wait for the paperback version. Its cost of $27.95 is a bit steep for a book that can’t be deemed better than merely acceptable.

--Lesley Dunlap