Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi there,

A user says: The Alex Cross series of books by James Patterson has an issue with the numbering. Cross Kill is listed as #23.5 but the events in it follow book #24 (Cross the Line) so it should be #24.5. The future BookShots book Detective Cross is listed as #24.5 but is is more likely to follow the next full novel making it #25.5 instead.

I've checked the publisher and author's website, but there's no numbering there. The only place I can get any information is here on WorldCat which agrees with the numbering on Goodreads.

Is anyone familiar with this series and knows the numbering?

Best,
Leslynn

It seems the series numbering follows publishing order so I wouldn't touch it - 23.5 seems to be published in June 16 and 24 - Nov 16

There are two solutions to problems like this:

1. I would just add a brief information regarding the chronological order of the two novellas in the series description.
2. Create a "chronological" or "author recommended" order series (without amending the publishing order series)

However considering that the issue is about two novellas (which are usually not main works and can be skipped when reading the series) and that even the author's website has the order as on GR I would opt for the first solution. In addition the series page notes that each book is self contained work.

Also here is the series page on the author's page: http://www.jamespatterson.com/alex-cross
The order there is reversed - newer books on top and you can see the order matches the GR series page.

Hope that helps.

Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "It seems the series numbering follows publishing order so I wouldn't touch it - 23.5 seems to be published in June 16 and 24 - Nov 16

There are two solutions to this problem.

1. I would just add..."
Hey Ellie, thanks for the detailed information -- appreciate the help!

Leslynn wrote: "Hey Ellie, thanks for the detailed information -- appreciate the help! "

You are welcome.
I just hope that resolves the issue. If there was an order recommended by the author or major difference in the reading order creating a second series page would totally makes sense.