Roses are Red

2000 (2006 Reissue)/Fiction-Mystery, Publisher: Hachette Bookgroup USA (Warner Books)
By James Patterson. 378 pgs.
Overview: B&N, Amazon, Wiki, MC
Detective Alex Cross pursues a mysterious criminal who calls himself the Mastermind. In a series of crimes that has stunned Washington, D.C., bank robbers have been killing bank employees and their familes if the robbers' instructions are not followed to the letter. (Website)
Review: C (1.23.07) There are 26 extra pages added to this edition with previews of Step on a Crack & a teaser of Cross. I read this in two days. Was it a good fast read? It's debateable. At first I thought I would like the one to three page chapters...but then it became annoying. Chapter numbers take up almost half a page of space, and some chapter end with only a couple of sentences on a page. Which means there is a lot of blank space in this book. Honestly I have to say that it is more along the lines of about 200 pages, maybe. I saw and really enjoyed the movie "Along Came a Spider," but then I really did not like the dark twistedness of "Kiss the Girls." Over the weekend, Janel's dad had mentioned he read three of his books and he passed them along to me. I checked comments about Patterson on Wikipedia and found out that he wasformerly an advertising executive for J. W. Thompson in the early 1990s, and came up with the slogan "Toys R Us Kid." I like that, I am in advertising, and that's great. So, with all that in combination with the fact I like the main character, I decided to check his writing out. This was the first James Patterson book I have ever read, and I kind of agree with Stephen King's criticizism, who called Patterson's books "dopey thrillers." There are simple things overlooked like DNA at certain events and so on that just irritate me that they had not been addressed in some way. The crisis at home storyline, and humor is pretty good, but the mastermind is too random. Plus, I don't really like the nicknames...mastermind, weasle...then something else happened. Do not read on if you have not read the book - spoiler alert. At the beginning something Kyle said to Cross was an instant red flag to me. It was his focus on Cross' son. Now keep in mind this was when families were being killed. So, at the time I read it, it was enough for me to keep a tab on him. Then, low and behold, the last line of the book. In the end of this review, this was a cliff hanger for the next book, only I do not feel like reading it at the moment. Plus, out of the three the next one his not Janel's dad's favorite.