Rating: 
Summary: Time to Quit, James
Review: We found it difficult to believe that James Patterson, or his agents and publishers could even release such a poor mystery. If you like books about cannabalism, give it a try. If you want a creative effort you can learn from, spend your time on another author because James Patterson no longer cares enough to write a decent book.
Rating: 
Summary: My First Alex Cross book
Review: My first Alex Cross and my first mystery suspense audio. I could barely hit the stop button. Looking forward to completing the Alex Cross series.
Rating: 
Summary: Short of Brilliance, But Heavy on Suspense
Review: This addition to the Alex Cross series, while not as good as the others, is still well worth the read, and has some great high points, chief among those being the fact that it is two books in one.Aficionadoes of the Alex Cross series know that the identity of the Mastermind, one of the most fiendish villains yet, was revealed on the last page of "Roses Are Red." I literally put down that book and picked up this one, continuing to read as if it were Part 2. I HAD to see how, when, or if Cross would figure it out. Patterson kept me on tenterhooks for a good long time, and that gave an extra element of suspense to the book. That's the lure of "Book 1," if you will. But for those who might have picked up Violets Are Blue out of order, or as a quick airport read, "Book 2" is just as good, and the revelation of the Mastermind's true identity as shocking as it was the first time. There are major flaws in the plot, however. The continued behavior of Christine, who has given up her own child, is annoying at best, mind-boggling at worst. The vampire cult is simply not believeable because of the extreme (blood drinking) lengths of the behavior of its members. I found myself wondering how John Samson could give up his day job as a cop at will and go off to spend weeks at a time guarding Cross's family. The connection of the Mastermind with the vampires is never entirely clear, and his after-the-fact link with former criminals such as Casanova and the Gentleman Caller made no sense at all, because it was not explained enough to make sense. Hence, the three stars. But it must be stressed that as a reader, I loved this book anyway, and am impatiently awaiting the next one in the series.
Rating:
Summary: SOOOOOO BAD!!!!
Review: I had read all the other books about Alex Cross and liked every one of them. Then along came Violets are Blue. It is the one of the worst books I have tried to read. I quit after 125 pages. I just gave up. Person after person is killed and the blood sucked out of them. All done by vampires no less. It is so bad. No real story except Alex trying to catch them. Just killing after killing. I really hate this. I liked James Patterson so much. I don't know if I will ever buy another one or not, wish I had not bought this one.
Rating:
Summary: vampires? puh-LEEZE...
Review: i love the alex cross novels, but this one was just plain goofy. he shouldn't have written it; it reads like a 'trashy novel'. his serial killer books are fascinating..and best of all, they're realistic. that's a large part of what makes them scary. this is not scary, it's ridiculous. don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Disappointed
Review: After having read Roses are Red and finding out at the end who the Mastermind was I eagerly anticipated Violets are Blue to see how and when Alex Cross would realise his identity. I knew that Patterson could not just let Alex Cross find out the identity of the Mastermind at the beginning of the novel and that there would have to be some suspence or something to lead up to the revelation. However the vampire thing was absolutely of on a tangent. I never found a link to the vampire killings and the Mastermind. I had expected to have read that the Mastermind had been a part of the cult as a kid or at some point in his life or even currently. When the book started of with the vampire killings I thought oh wow James Patterson is going to give this Mastermind mystery a interesting unexpected sick twist and I anticipated the link to the Mastermind to the vampire killers.
I was extremely disappointed by the end of the novel. I felt that after such anticipation for a book to have it be such a letdown was terrible.
However I will still encourage people to read James Patterson novels, since generally they are gripping page turners. If you are a first time reader of James Patterson though I recommend that you begin with Kiss the girls, Jack and Jill, Roses are Red or any of his other Alex Cross books since they are much better.
Rating:
Summary: Violets are Blue
Review: Sorry I wated my time reading this waste of paper. James Patterson is one of my fav's but this thing was dreary. It seems he just needed to write something that had Detective Cross and others still alive and well. The story line is like something from S. King. Not a Patterson "good book".
Rating:
Summary: This is a waste of time!
Review: This book was so bad, I couldn't believe I stayed up all night to finish it. I should have just caught up on my sleep! It was a complete waste of time. The vampire-theme was interesting at first, but it quickly fizzled. And the ending chapters about the "Mastermind" was really bad... I don't know if I'll ever attempt another James Patterson book after this. I would have given it less than a 1 if I could have.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable, Disappointing and Silly
Review: This book is a continuation of ROSES ARE RED, in which the identity of the villain is revealed in the last sentence. Still, I was kind of hoping that the ending of the last book was a red herring and that it would really turn out to be somebody else. The first part of the book Patterson's hero, Alex Cross, goes into Kay Scarpetta territory to solve some murders committed by a group of people who role-play at being vampires. I am not a fan of vampire stories and did not for a second think that the killers were anything more than a cult of wannabees. There was no supernatural or occult stuff in this story, just a bunch of freaks who like to dress in black, with lots of tattoos and piercings. Since the identity of the killers is also revealed to the reader early on in the book, it became rather tedious to follow Alex Cross solving clues, while trying to spend time with his kids and grandma. I was also expecting the "Mastermind" to be linked to the vampire gang, possibly as a parent of the killers, but the two plots did not tie together. If you have never read anything by James Patterson, don't read this book first. Read BLACK FRIDAY, which is an eerie scenario that predicts the events of Sept. 11. It is one of his best, along with Along Came a Spider.
Rating:
Summary: Marginal suspense thriller
Review: This was my first James Patterson book, so I'll have to accept the general consensus that many of his earlier novels are better than this one. The main problem with Violets are Blue (aside from a title that has nothing to do with the book, at least that I can tell) is that it has two distinct storylines that do not significantly intersect or complement one another. Detective Alex Cross is being stalked by a brilliant psychopath (aren't they all?) known as the Mastermind. This puts added strain on his already difficult family situation. Cross is a single father attempting to raise three children. The conflict between job and family life portrayed in Violets are Blue is somewhat hackneyed. Meanwhile, a series of brutal murders apparently committed by vampires (and possibly a pet tiger) sends Cross all over the country. The vampire part of the plot was the most interesting. It explores the goth/vampire subculture, and postulates what might happen if some of these people took their fascination with the dark side of things to an extreme. As I mentioned, the two threads remain separate until the very end of the book. To my mind, one of them resolves itself too quickly and the other too predictably; I guessed the identity of one of the villains fairly early. All in all, some good elements, but not combined in the best fashion.
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