Throughtful Reader

By James Patterson (375 Pages)

James Patterson’d 18th entry into the Alex Cross reminds us that even great authors can get lazy, of that the ideas well can run a little dry.

The story revolves around Alex Cross being brought in to investigate the kidnapping of the President’s two children (ring any bells?). Cross must figure who, how, and why? Let me give you some clues. The suspect had to be cousin of Gary Soneji, or maybe the suspect had read Patterson’s first Alex Cross book “Along came a Spider”. It even gets acknowledged by Alex himself when he realizes he has been in this exact situation before. Talk about a character going full circle. There issubplot that I feel was a complete waste and was possibly drummed during the time that Americans were still in the post 9/11 fear. It involved a contagion being put in the Washington D.C water supply.

However, Cross and his long time partner and best friend John Sampson are able to keep the reader around to somewhat enjoy the book. Their interactions are always good, and of course Alex’s Nana continuest to keep our hero in line when needs it. The ending is another story and I will leave it at that.

James Patterson has written some brilliant Cross novels. “Kiss the Girls’”, “Jack and Jill”, “4 Blind Mice”, and “Big Bad Wolf” are just some examples. Unfortunetly, Patterson misses the mark and really disappointed me with how lazy this story was. It reminded me the sequels to John Grisham’s “A time to kill”. “Sycamore Tree”. and “A time for mercy” we written a decade after and completely deviated off the story and abandoned the continuity. Grisham even acknowledges this at the end of “A time for mercy” apologizing to the reader and admitting he never revisted his first book for continuity purposes.

I will read the next set of Cross novels, but I sincerely hope that Patterson is able to get back on the right track. I hope that he doesnt fall into complacancy just write books just to have one to release like Grisham. Time will tell