The thirty-first instalment in James Patterson's globally bestselling series. When an American Airlines plane explodes in the sky, detectives Alex Cross and John Sampson are first on the scene. They don't hear the gunfire. At first. It soon becomes clear that the plane was taken down by a rare, stolen machine gun. The list of people who could operate the weapon is short. And time runs even shorter. But this isn't the only case the pair must solve. They're also tracking a serial killer who's ambushing young men in what the media are calling the 'Dead Hours' murders. With two killers and two different motives, Cross and Sampson are in a deadly race against time . . . ________________________________ PRAISE FOR THE ALEX CROSS SERIES 'Patterson never, and I mean never, disappoints' USA Today 'Behind all the noise and the numbers, we shouldn't forget that no one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it' Lee Child 'Alex Cross is a legend' Harlan Coben 'Alex Cross ... only gets better and better' Lisa Scottoline 'I wrote, \"Along Came a Spider is the best thriller I've come across in many a year. It deserves to be this season's no. 1 bestseller and should instantly make James Patterson a household name.\" A household name, indeed' Nelson DeMille ' Alex Cross has become one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, a character for the ages' Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child