Cross (novel) - Characters

Characters

• Alex Cross

Alex was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His mother died when he was 9 years old and his father was an alcoholic, so he lived with his grandmother. Alex Cross joined the Washington DC Police Department as a psychologist. There he worked in the Homicide and Major Crimes department and somehow also worked between the FBI and the DC police. After this he worked for the FBI as a Senior Agent and when he left the FBI he opened his own psychology practice. He still lives in Washington DC with Nana Mama and his three children Damon, Jannie and Alex Jr. Despite the fact that he’s well educated and makes a decent living, he chooses to continue living in the slums of DC and is very much involved in the community. In his free time he likes playing the piano, listening to classical music and reading. Patterson portrays him as a lonely person but also as a model father who tries to spend as much time as possible with his family.

• Nana Mama

Her real name is Regina Hope Cross and she’s Alex’s grandmother who looked after him when he grew up. She’s 81 years old and still lives with Alex and his three children in Washington DC. Nana used to work as an English teacher and as an assistant principal at Garfield North Junior High School in Washington. She’s quite severe and manners are very important for her.

• Maria Simpson Cross (flashback)

Alex's deceased wife, whom we briefly meet in the opening chapters of the story.

• John Sampson

He and Alex have grown up together and know each other since they were 10 years old. He was Alex’s partner when he worked for the DC Police. After Alex leaves the FBI Sampson needs his help in a case that probably is in connection with the murder of Alex’s wife Maria, so they become partners again.

• Michael "The Butcher of Sligo" Sullivan

Michael Sullivan grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He had no good childhood and often had problems with his father, who molested him. So at the age of eighteen, he killed him before dismembering him using a scalpel and feeding him to the fish in the bay. Some time later he got connections to Mafia, especially the Maggione family, for which he worked as a killer. After one of his jobs, he got the nickname “the Butcher” due to his cruelness and often killing his victims in a brutal way. After killing his victims he would cut up their faces with a scalpel to make a point and take pictures to use a threatening devise so his next victims would keep quiet. He lives with his wife and three sons in Maryland.

• Jimmy "Hats" Galati

Jimmy is The Butcher's partner in crime and turns out to be the killer of Maria. He is killed by Sampson and another man years ago, but was never told to Cross that Jimmy had done it. "Jimmy was known as "Jimmy the Protector" because he had the Butcher's back. Always." This is his only appearance throughout the series and it is brief. The Butcher thinks one of his mob bosses killed Hats, but it was Sampson.