Roses Are Red Abridged

Rating:
Summary: roses are red
Review: I'm a student at Northeast High School and have already read two of James Patterson's novels in class(When the Wind Blows and The Lake House). Both of the books featured short chapters and an easy to read style that turned me on the Patterson's books. I have to say I would never read the rest of his novels. I'm not that big of a mystery fan. This book with it's juggling between Cross' love affairs and childrens problems, along with his tracking of one of the most amazingly psychotic killers I have ever read about make this book extremely hard to put down. I would have to recommend it to someone who enjoys plot twists and really imaginative and bizarre characters.

Rating:
Summary: The ending stunk!
Review: I have read eight of Patterson's novels so far and was totally disppointed how he ended this one. It was like the phone rang while he was finishing the novel or he had to be somewhere and just closed it leaving the reader empty. The story was fairly good, but the ending was so rushed. I hate books where the killer is revealed but nothing is done about it. I can only guess that Patterson left it that way to start out the next novel. But I can't help but feel let down and cheated, that the characters in this story were never vindicated.

Rating:
Summary: Smoking!!
Review: I have been reading JP now for a few years now and while not the literary critic that most are who gave bad reviews, I read his books just for simple pleasure. This book is typical JP. The plot was well conceived and the story line is fun, has a few turns, and kept me focused. This very good short read is extremely enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: You can do better.
Review: I am a mystery fan and have read just about everybody. The plot of Roses are Red is good. The pace is excellent. The writing is mediocre and the depth of development of the emotional aspect of his characters is superficial. Alex Cross has a long way to go before he is an Alex Delaware or Kay Scarpetta.

Rating:
Summary: First and last....
Review: There are many many worse authors selling just as many copies, however, this was an uninteresting novel, poorly structured, and with a pointless ending. There is no value in a detective story in which the author takes pains to ensure that the culprit cannot be identified. If the unfinished nature of the book is designed to tempt me to read the next in the series then it failed.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty darn good
Review: Since I was initially introduced to Patterson via 3RD DEGREE, I decided to try another one of his books on my own. ROSES ARE RED is a great book to get your mind jogging. The twists and turns the plot takes are crazy and will sometimes catch you off guard. You have to be paying real close attention to what's going on to be able to follow along. The book deals with the famous Alex Cross and his family, along with his new love interest, Betsy Cavalierre and his other fellow employees. The wild deaths and murders take your mind to a different level of thinking and understanding. Patterson gets into the criminal mind and you discover what psychotic things a 'mastermind' can think up. Also try CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson McCrae for a VERY interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: First Alex Cross book I read.
Review: The book was cheap, and on sale, bargain price, and I coudn't help but pick it up, what's the harm. I had no knowledge of the Alex Cross books, All I knew was it was a book, the first book book, I would read in my fifteen years on the earth. It was great, it didn't distill a love of reading, no, I had just woken one day and decided I want to be a voracious reader. Really.

Rating:
Summary: Finger Nail Biter
Review: Man, couldn't put this one down. Very suspenseful and fast paced. I am moving on to Violets are Blue. Hope it is as good as this one. Highly recommended if you enjoy thriller FBI stuff.

Rating:
Summary: An okay read, but disappointing ending
Review: I work in a retirement home, and occasionally get a few minutes to myself and go to the library. Since I've read all the decent true crime there, I thought I would give this fiction writer a try.

I think that Patterson is an involving writer for the most part - I took the book home and finished after work. And I thought his character "Mastermind" was very interesting. He reminds me of Lawrence Sanders in that he can make up characters that you truly hate and want to see punished.

There were some exciting parts, like the train part where they have to drop of a ransom and are turned every which way by this psycho.

I can't say what happens at the end, but it is not a very finished ending, it's almost a little slap in the face. Disappointing.

And I really did have to wonder - why would some white writer make his hero a black guy? To be unique? To be what? I am the only white worker among many black people, and if I were going to have a hero/heroine, I would base it on my own culture. I am not a racist at all, but I do wonder.

I recently read "Along Came a Spider," too, and it's better than this, but for me, Patterson is a writer that can be hit or miss in a lot of ways.