Rating: 
Summary: Another great addition to the Cross series
Review: I just finished Roses are Red...what a book! Patterson once again gives us more about Alex Cross, his family and his woes. It is nice to see the inner workings of Alex Cross - to find out more about what makes him tick.Alex has been asked to help investigate bank robberies that are leaving everyone baffled. Each bank robbery is more violent than the next. Alex works with a new FBI partner, Betsy. She is a strong character and quickly Alex recognizes her talents. The book has a lot of twists and the ending provides quite a cliff hanger. I can wait until I read Violets are Blue.
Rating:
Summary: fast as ever. Still not well written
Review: I read this 430 page book in two days. Such is James Patterson's mastery of his page-turning craft. Page-turning they are, well written they aren't. IM increasingly coming to think of James Patterson as a comic book novelist. For that is what his novels are like. They are action packed, they have twists, they have turns, but they are about as complex and well written as a comic strip. It's very simplistic, the characters are extremely wooden, especially lately. He is concentrating very much of pageturning thrills, rather than well written novels. I have just finished an earlier thriller of his, Black Market, and it is written extremely well. So from that we can assume that over time he has just abandoned any attempt to write them well, just to concentrate on making them quick reads with many twists and turns, or that he is just rushing his books. I tend to think that this latter option is the correct one. We have had three patterson novels this year, and there is another coming out in February. So, as works of literature these books are awful. But, as thrillers, they are actually superb. The short chapters will always have you reading many more pages than you intended, and the twists and turns will have you turning the pages even quicker to find out what will happen next. His hero, Alex Cross, is very likeable, and like all seemingly good detectives, he has complicated family issues as well as a tough job. But...he also has flaws. His familay are so damn perfect. His wonderful housemaid nana, his picture perfect children, his supportive best friend. I get tired of them. And i have to say i loved the way that in this book Patterson incorporated family tragedy into the plot, concerning his daughter. it gace a definite edge to things. Another criticism, however, is that Alex Cross is not 007. So far, he has fallen in love with the lead female character of every book since Along Came A Spider, which was the very firt Cross novel. First there was Jezzie Flannigan, then Kate McTiernan, then Christine Johnson, then Patsy Hampton, and now Betsy Cavallier in RareR (and he does it again with Jamilla Hughes in the sequel to this, Violets are Blue) I have to say that it is very annoying. Very. For James Bond it worked, because we knew it wasn't a romantic attatchment, just his physical love for them, but here Cross is always telling us how nuch he is in love with them. The plot of this novel is very, very original. And very enjoyable to read. But it does get a bit complicated toward the end, what with Lawrence Szabo, and all the complicitations that he brings. And now, onto the controversial ending. No one has ever disagreed with Patterson's masterful ability at being able to pull the carpet out from under even the most dextrous of armchair detectives, but this time, so might think he's gone a little too far. You will either love the ending, and the questions it throws up, and uncertainties it casts over the entire Cross seris, or you will hate it and feel somewhat cheated. You will think it is ridiculing the rest of the Cross novels. And no doubt the most cynical will call it a sales ploy for the sequel, which i personally don't believe it is. If he hadn't ended it this way, there wouldn't even have been a sequel, because there would have been nothing to follow it on with. All in all, an exciting read, with possibly the most controversial ending ever to grace thriller fiction (Hannibal was not controversial it was great). But the writing could be improved upon once more.
Rating: 
Summary: The main Character is back!
Review: This is great reading. Fast-paced. Excellent ending!
Rating: 
Summary: Family man detective sloughs off kids for romance
Review: Apparently James Patterson is very popular and I thought I'd give Roses are Red a try. I was disappointed and thought that this might have been a bad entry. Patterson has constructed a multi-layered thriller i.e. it's like peeling off the layers of an onion. These kinds of stories work and work well when the authors don't try and make the rest of the story details too realistic. Patterson tries to combine a detective thriller with a romance with the story of a widower and his family. It doesn't work. From the thriller standpoint it's overly complex and was obviously written with a sequel in mind if not the big screen. The romance is fine but why is a widower who is portrayed as a good father spending so little of his scarce free time away from his small kids and romancing women? Real kids would want their father around. A good father wouldn't go off for trysts when he has precious little time for his family. There actually is a not bad detective story in Roses are Red waiting to get out. However, Patterson is trying to combine too many things that don't mesh. As a result none of them work.
Rating:
Summary: ONE HECK OF A GOOD BOOK
Review: As usual James Patterson comes through again blowing are minds away. Once I started this I literally couldn't put down, it was etheir tied with Kiss the Girls or a close second. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a suspensful, action packed, awesome book.
Rating:
Summary: A good book, not his best, but far from his worse.
Review: I'd really like to give this book 3.99. Its close to a 4, but not quite. The pacing is fast like all Patterson books, and the plot is involving in interesting. However, I wasn't really suprised about the identity of the Mastermind character... but i've always had a knack for discovering plot twists before they come (this is Patterson, you know there's an unexpected one in their somewhere). I'm interested in reading the next novel, Violets are Blue. I love the Cross character, but I'm hoping that the 10th book in the series will be a 700+ page masterpiece concluding the series (one guy can only take som much, you know).
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but flawed
Review: This review is based on the six-hour audiobook version of this book. The book definitely keeps your attention and the pacing is very good. However, the primary problem I had was the way Patterson simply seemed to pick the identity of "The Mastermind" out of thin air. There was nothing in the book to suggest that this was the person behind the acts being investigated, nor was there any motivation given for why this person was involved in these activities. This is especially troublesome given the nature of the activities and who "The Mastermind" actually was. I understand that "The Mastermind" shows up in Patterson's latest novel, so perhaps in reading it some of his motivation will be explained.
Rating:
Summary: Roses are Red - Alex Cross's finest outing
Review: I'm a pretty big fan of Alex Cross, and after reading all of his books i have to say that ROSES ARE RED has been the best yet.
The Mastermind - Cross's new rival - was cunning, ruthless and always thrilled with the many twists and turns the story took. It kept me in suspense throughout the entire book all the way to the climatic ending with the biggest twist of all.
Cross was his usual interesting character, while he showed some new emotions while trying to keep his relationship with Christine - who is still recovering from her kidnapping experience - at a stable point.
Patterson has come a long way since "Along Came A Spider", Cross's first outing, and now i cant wait to see him again in the continuation to Roses are Red, "Violets are Blue" where the Mastermind's secret can finally be revealed.
Rating: 
Summary: Attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator
Review: I have never read anything by this author before, but when I realized at the airport that I had nothing to read on my weekend vacation, I stopped at the newstand and chose "Roses Are Red" because it looked exciting and suspensful. This book was so disappointing that it was all I could do not to hurl it into the water from my beach chair. Most of the book is at a 3rd grade reading level. I guessed who the "bad guy" would end up being early on and was disappointed to finally discover that I was right - disappointed because it was so formulaic. The "twists and turns" of the plotline involving the Mastermind are painfully predictable and the other crises Alex Cross faces seemed to be thrown in there to artificially beef up the number of pages. Every other page begins a new chapter, which only made for stilted breaks in the story. It was like Mr. Patterson got paid by the number of pages he used. I found all of the characters to be completely unbelievable and cartoonish. Next time I forget my book before I go on vacation, I'll just wait to find a library when I get to my destination.
Rating:
Summary: Another visit with Alex Cross and his family
Review: This book is another entry into the series by James Patterson featuring Alex Cross, the psychologist/detective from Washington D,C. The reader also has an opportunity to visit with Alex's wise grandmother, his two children, a detective friend of his and the mother of his youngest child. Alex's girlfriend reeling from her kidnapping and birth of her son in the book Pop Goes the Weasel, now wants no part of Alex or his lifestyle unless he quits the force. As as Alex ponders what to do, he is once again called in to solve a series of robberies and murders by a person who this times calls himself The Master. As Alex mounts a campaign to find this killer and bring him to justice, his family life is threatened when his daughter falls ill and his girlfriend decides to leave her son with Alex while she leaves Washington to live far from her former home. The book moves along with Alex juggling his family life with his obsessive quest to find The Master. As in most of Patterson's Delaware books, there are twists and turns and the reader moves along somewhat stymied ast to figure out who is doing what. Eventually Alex is able to figure out who The Master is but the revelation, at least to me seemed to be plucked from the air and reminded me of the revealation of the killer in Kiss the Girls. And an explanaiton as to how, why or what isn't fully explained either. I did enjoy this book and perhaps if The Master seemed more logical I would have given this book a five star rating. Even so, the next book in the series Violets are Blue has just been released and I do look forward to reading the new book shortly. Now with Patterson writing a romantic fiction book, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, and the beginning of a new series featuring four women in the book, 1st to Die, Patterson's fans are assured of many future books to keep us happy. I must admit that I enjoy Patterson's books which are fast reads although some, including the Delaware series are better than others.
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