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1-Page Summary of Along Came A Spider
Overall Summary
A novel by James Patterson, Along Came a Spider features Detective Alex Cross on the case of a murderous psychopath. Morgan Freeman played Alex Cross in the movie adaptation.
The novel begins with the investigation of two murders and a kidnapping in Washington, D.C. Cross is pulled off that case to investigate when he finds out that two students were kidnapped from their private school. He clashes with Jezzie Flannagan, the Secret Service agent who had been guarding those children before they were kidnapped.
Meanwhile, Gary Soneji buries his victims at an abandoned farmhouse. His partner John Sampson and Alex Cross search Soneji’s apartment and learn that he is obsessed with famous kidnappings, especially the 1932 kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. He wants to be somebody someday. Soneji disguises himself as a TV reporter in order to murder Roger Graham, who has made derogatory comments about him on air. The corpse of Michael Goldberg is discovered shortly after the telegram demanding $10 million ransom money is sent to Maggie Rose Dunne’s parents.
When Alex Cross and Jezzie Flannagan work together to track down Gary Soneji, they begin an affair. Soneji contacts the police to tell them that he wants Alex Cross to deliver the ransom money. Alex wonders how Soneji knows who he is. He delivers the money but doesn’t get Maggie Rose back from him.
Police find the farmhouse where the children were buried alive. The graves are empty, and they begin to suspect that Soneji is responsible for this crime as well. Meanwhile, he returns home in Delaware and murders his wife and daughter because of their interference with his plans. He then goes back to Washington D.C., disguises himself as a utility worker, and kills a teacher at Washington Day School before Cross arrives on the scene.
The detectives return to the neighborhood where two prostitutes were killed. They talk with an old woman who remembers a heating salesman, Gary Murphy. The detectives learn that he worked for Atlantic Heating and set up surveillance at his house in Wilmington.
This is Soneji’s house. He is having a birthday party for his daughter, but the police are outside trying to catch him. The next day, he takes several people hostage in McDonald’s and seems to want to die himself. However, Cross saves his life because he believes that Soneji will tell him where Maggie Rose is hiding. However, Soneji swears that Cross will regret saving his life because of what happens later on in the book.
Soneji (a.k.a Murphy) is tried for murder. The defense claims that he suffers from a split personality, but the prosecution proves that Soneji and Murphy are two different people: one is a violent psychopath, while the other is normal and gentle. He’s convicted of murder and sent to prison.
During the murder trial, it is revealed that someone was following Soneji. Cross believes that Devine and Chakely must have known about the kidnapping and are involved in some way.
Cross takes this information to the FBI, who suspect Devine and Chakely of stealing the ransom money. The FBI reveals that Jezzie Flannagan was behind everything.
Soneji escapes from prison and kidnaps Devine. However, he kills him after learning the location of the money. Meanwhile, Cross has taken Flannagan on vacation in the Caribbean. He confronts her, and she confesses that she was behind Michael Goldberg’s death as well as kidnapping Maggie Rose so that she could steal the ransom money. She is arrested by Sampson who recorded her confession.
Maggie Rose is found alive in South America, where she has been for the past two years. Soneji attacks Cross at his house in Washington where Cross lives with his family. They fight each other and Cross corners him on Pennsylvania Avenue. A guard wounds Soneji before he can shoot Cross, who then takes him into custody. Chakely and Flannagan are executed by lethal injection for their part of the crimes that led to Maggie’s kidnapping.
