Wow, I can't believe I used to like this book. All of the things I came to hate about the later books of the series are actually WORSE in this book. I have tried to keep spoilers to details to they won't ruin the plot. Also, fair warning, a lot of this review is a C&P of the first Cross book since a lot of my issues are the same.
1. The fact that Patterson spends half the book writing about how evil white people are drives me nuts. Keep in mind that Patterson was a 46 y.o., married, wealthy, while male from Palm Beach, FL writing about what it's like to be a 38 y.o. single father living in a crime-ridden poor neighborhood in DC. Really!? If it were only Patterson's apparent self-hatred, I would just feel pity for him. However, he managed to repeatedly glorify reverse-racism while fitting in more racist cliches than I ever would have thought possible. Check out how many times fried chicken and ribs shows up in the first three-four books. Also, Alex's obsession with white women. To say nothing of the language and the discussions of "the man," slavery and why the blues is the only good music ever created. Oh, and every white cop is an A$$
2. *SPOILER ALERT* Plot issues:
- Despite repeated conversations about jurisdictional arguments and police being territorial, Cross again jumps jurisdictions like they don't exist. There isn't even a lame "FBI" excuse this time.
- Why does every evil serial-killer criminal in the world have the hots for Cross? Granted he's a sexy black man (it's not racist 'cause the book says so!) but seriously, he hasn't caught THAT many bad guys at this point in the series and yet they ALL come looking for him?
- The FBI KNEW who Smith was and let him keep running around? Okay, if you want hard-and-fast proof, fine. But when you KNOW who he's chasing for his next victim, maybe put the guy under surveillance?
- The reasons for suspecting Mr Smith's identity are weak. Equally weak is the "discovery" as to how he choses his victims. And the ending. And basically the whole Mr. Smith plot. Had Patterson just stuck with "arch nemesis escapes from jail (again)" he might have had something - another Batman/Joker rip off anyways. Instead, he adds in a second, unnecessary killer and it drags on and on and on and...
3. Cross is revoltingly perfect. He balances family, women and job perfectly. He never gets angry with his kids/Nana or they with him. He is gorgeous and impervious to beatings, shootings, etc. (sorry, I already forget which violence took place in which book). In this book he is firebombed and never missed a beat or becomes less attractive.
He has NO issues what-so-ever except for the occasional "oh ya, and I miss my wife." Another reader said this, but I must take the time to agree - why does every characters have to have crappy relationships? Cross comes from a broken home himself and is a single dad due to a murdered wife. His love interest has a broken home and everyone around her died of cancer.
4. Cross' women: While this one manages to avoid death or maiming, this is apparently because she was attacked, her husband killed and she was held hostage in book #3. Which continues the "women exist only to cause Alex pain" series. Man, Alex Cross has it worse than Batman.
Also, this is 3/3 on the description of "Alex hasn't felt this close to a woman since his wife died. Except for Jezzie. And Kate. And the next 3 women he hooks up with. But congrats to this one for lasting more than one book!
5. I hate the writing style. The tendency to go from first person to third person (and MANY third persons at that) drive me tweaky. Pick one. I also don't like the short, abrupt chapters that appear to do no more than lengthen the book. Also, why does Patterson feels the need to RANDOMLY EMPHASIZE PASSAGES FOR NO GOOD REASON? I mean, is there really a need to confuse the reader by adding italics not only for thoughts, BUT FOR SUDDEN BURSTS OF WRITING THAT APPEAR TO MEAN NOTHING? This gets worse in the second and forth book (I skipped #3 this time around), but IT'S PRETTY ANNOYING HERE TOO. See what I means? Oh, and learn how to write a 4 year old's thoughts so that she doesn't sound older and wiser than Nana. Actually, she and Nana might as well be the same character except that the girl is there to be cute and Nana is there to be racist. 'Cause apparently being racist when your old is okay.
All in all, a book to be avoided - especially if you actually read and THINK about what you are reading. If you are the kind of person who listens to the beat of the song and has no idea what the words are, you might like it just fine. And if you are white and feel guilty about it, you will probably even find it "deep."