Violets Are Blue (Alex Cross)
by James Patterson
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Book Summary Information
Author: James PattersonReader: Daniel Whitner
Reader: Kevin O'Rourke
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published: 2001-11-01
ISBN: 1586211986
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Book Reviews of Violets Are Blue (Alex Cross)
Book Review: Good In Its Own Right, But Not The 'Roses Are Red' Follow-Up It Had The Potential To Be
Summary: 3 Stars
The Alex Cross novel before this one, Roses Are Red (Alex Cross), ended on a major cliffhanger, and I had high expectations for the follow-up. Roses Are Red ended with the revelation of the identity of arch-criminal mastermind and with a final horrific crime that left long-time detective Cross shaken to the core and primed for vengeance. But unfortunately, this follow-up really isn't a direct sequel. It follows two separate storylines - one is the hunt for the still-at-large Mastermind (whose identity, I should point out, was revealed to the Reader but not to Cross or the other characters) who continues to taunt Cross from afar; this story is the smaller of the two main plots though. Occupying the lion's share of the book is a tale about a decades-long series of ritual killings involving either vampires or people who think they're vampires. The idea of introducing a potentially supernatural antagonist into an established series of detective novels is actually a good one; unfortunately, while it didn't fall flat on its face it doesn't turn out to be an especially Good vampire story either.
The sections of the story that deal with the Cross/Mastermind vendetta are better - especially as the Mastermind begins to threaten all those close to Cross - but don't entirely deliver on the potential from Roses's cliffhanger. Violets Are Blue opens up on the same scene Roses Are Red ended on, and right off the bat seems to be setting the stage for something diifferent, less intense, than those last pages of Roses indicated we'd be getting. The sections of the book focusing on this plot line are still the better part of the novel, but its not what it could have been, and the finale came off anti-climatic. The two threads - the Mastermind and the vampires (whether they turn out to be real or just vampirically-inclined killers is something that doesn't get resolved until later in the book) - do eventually tie in, but I was left with the idea that they should have each had a novel to themselves.
As for the pluses - the book is well written, parts of the Mastermind sections do deliver on their potential (and show perhaps what the book could have been like if the vampires had been left for another novel, and the vendetta angle had been allowed to grow), and perhaps most importantly, Patterson excels at writing his core characters - Cross, his family, the other law enforcement agents he works with. It's enough to lift the book up a ways, and it's certainly readable, but it's not on par with either Roses Are Red or with the better vampire novels out there, like The Historian.
Bottom line though, still a good book - I may have liked it more if my expectations going in weren't so high - and one that Cross fans should give a try.
Summary of Violets Are Blue (Alex Cross)
Two joggers are found murdered in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and the killings are bizarrely reminiscent of a Washington, D.C. case that Alex Cross has been unable to solve. He is called to San Francisco, and then learns of similar murders in eight cities from Las Vegas to Charleston. Together with a female San Francisco detective, Cross plunges into a menacing world where posing explodes into bloodlust and frenzy, even as he is being stalked by a terrifying criminal who calls himself the Mastermind.James Patterson is at his most shocking and suspenseful best in a novel that will stun and satisfy his vast audience.
Fans of James Patterson's resourceful cop Alex Cross will be relieved to find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and, more importantly, that this is one of the best Alex Cross thrillers yet.
The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is fixing to give Alex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in a particularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have been viciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blood drained from their corpses. And when further brutal deaths follow in California and on the East Coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility of modern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the many sinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by Jamilla Hughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds that he has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop further bloodletting.
Patterson fans expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of them here!), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personal life, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resist reading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thriller reader's medal. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk
Patterson, James Books
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