Rating: Summary: excellent very fast moving twists snd turns in plot Review: this is defintly one of his best very intriguing great chachter devlopment and great way to tie all of Dr.Alex Cross loose ends together!!
Rating: Summary: The book is okay but didnt live up to my expectations Review: The first book by James Patterson which I read was "Hide and Seek" and I thought it was quite brilliant. After reading Along came a spider and Kiss the girls, I was expecting the fourth installment to be pretty good. In a way I was disappointed because I was expecting a big end of book showdown with Gary Soneji but the introduction of another killer, spoils it a bit. There wasn't much emphasis placed on the new killer and I found that a lot of things that happens, just happens. There is minimal lead up to a lot of the issues explained in the book and thus left me thinking "how the heck did this come about?". However, there are some twists and turns which made me keep on turning the pages despite the need for sleep so he has done a pretty good job despite what i view are the negatives. This book is a darn good read if you just go with the flow of the story and treat it like a mystery thriller rather than a detective story. Those who have read "Kiss the girls" would know what I mean by that (refer to the rather unpredictable ending).
Rating: Summary: Bad title to a good Cross book Review: After reading the awesome books of Kiss the Girls and Jack and Jill, I thought that Cat & Mouse would be fitting to its own title, but unfortunately, a better title could have been something like The Burning of a Cross. I mean, Cross should have been stressed out after chasing all of these wackos! The love scenes in the latest Patterson novel are unnecessary, but still okay. Soneji was finished off too quickly for someone who was so smart in Along Came a Spider, and Mr. Smith was just too silly of a character. Perhaps Patterson has learned of his mistakes and will think of some way to bring back Soneji, a villain that will be missed, I'm sure.
Rating: Summary: Unfortunately James Patterson is no Ian Fleming! Review: Alex Cross isn't 007 or even in his league. What a disappointment. No page-turning suspense. No shocker. No fun and games with the reader. Guess that's why Alex Cross never made it to the big screen. Save your money.
Rating: Summary: Patterson's new novel is good, but not great Review: Ever since reading "Kiss The Girls" last year, I've been a fan of James Patterson and his character, Alex Cross. I've now read all the novels involving this character, and unforunately, none live up to "Kiss The Girls". When I heard that he was going back to his original formula(prolouge, primary killer first, then secondary)with "Cat& Mouse", I immediately purchased the book. After finishing it in a matter of days, I have mixed feelings about it. First of all, I would hesitate to call this one novel. It's 400 pages long. The first 200 consist of his old nemesis, Gary Soneji, who I feel has always been a weak villian. These pages were somewhat corny, but like always, very quick to read. Soneji gets taken care of half way through the book, and a new killer, sparsly mentioned earlier on, arises. This serial killer is Mr. Smith, who is one of Patterson's best, for a while. Mr. Smith is killing off innocents in Paris at a franctic pace. Hot his trail is F.B.I. profiler Thomas Pierce, who actually takes over Alex Cross' job as narrator for 100 pages. Patterson, for some reason, decides to reveal Mr. Smith's identity with 80 pages remaining in the book. This takes away the suspense. Also, Mr. Smith eventually overstays his welcome. By the time the book is over, you're tiring of this well developed but overused character. The narrator change was an interesting touch, and Patterson was clever with the plot developements, but I kept expecting more to happen in the finale. I decided that to give this book an extremely high rating, I would have to be thoroughly satsitfied with the ending, which I was not. You may have heard from other reviews that this novel ends with a shameless cliffhanger; I was still looking for the "Shocking" ending when I finished the book. Overall, Patterson did a fairly good job of shaping up his newest novel. If you haven't read "Kiss The Girls", I'd buy that top notch thriller immediately, and put this slightly over average one on hold.
Rating: Summary: Highly recommended; a real page turner. Review: Being a true James Patterson fan I was not disappointed with his latest book, Cat & Mouse. It is a well written, enthralling story where the author brings his characters to life and makes them seem real. This was a hard book to put down.
Rating: Summary: A dull Cross novel Review: I have noticed that after a while, James Patterson's books all seem the same. In the fourth Alex Cross novel, "Cat and Mouse", Cross must combat his old enemy Gary Sanji, who has arrived out of nowhere to take revenge on him. Also, Senji has a secret. And there is also a new villian thrown into the mix; Mr. Smith, who is murdering people all over Europe and in the U.S. On his trail is Agent Pierce of the FBI. How these two storys combine is pretty thin for my taste. The whole book seemed way to contrived. I usually like Patterson's books, but this one, while fast paced and exciting (loved the chase through the New York subways), just dosn't hold up to logic very well, even worst here than usual. Cross is in love with his kids' school principal, who lost her husband in the previous book "Jack and Jill". She seems to be just there to give Cross somthing to do between cases. All in all, I really didn't like this one as well as I did the others.
Rating: Summary: A Worthy Sequel Review: I loved "Kiss the Girls" and "Along came a Spider" and I loved this latest book as well.It was as fast-paced and thrilling as the others. Okay, Gary Soneji finds his demise way to early, but then ... there is still Mr. Smith to keep the reader interested. I think switching first person narrative from Alex Cross to Agent Thomas Pierce in the middle of the book was a nice twist and added to the story. I had my suspicions on the identity of Mr. Smith early on, but that did not diminish my reading pleasure. I kept telling myself that this could not be true only to learn near the end that the FBI had had the same suspicions from the beginning. Well, good for me, I'm as smart as the FBI ! :-) Usually I am not into love scenes, I don't think, a detective story is the right place for them, but in this case I granted it to Alex Cross. Maybe the reason is that I read Patricia Cornwells "Point of Origin" prior to this book, where everyone seems to suffer from severe depression. So I was relieved that at least someone in law enforcement finally finds some joy in life. I would recommend "Cat and Mouse" to any James Patterson and Alex Cross fan, though it's probably best to read the books in order. I for one am still wondering how Soneji got out of prison, but that's probably in a book I haven't read yet. - Sabrina
Rating: Summary: Worth it for Gary Soneji Review: If you liked the idea of Gary Soneji in the movie Along Came A Spider, then you will probably not mind reading Cat & Mouse, which is mostly about Gary Soneji, developing this character a lot more, but unfortunately doesn't deliver as good a second half with the serial killer of Mr. Smith which although is an interesting read does not really make the Soneji story any better, thus Cat & Mouse would have been a lot better if it skipped on Mr. Smith and did more with Soneji. This is one of the better Alex Cross reads and you could do a lot worse than Cat & Mouse, so in that respect it is one of Patterson's better books.
Rating: Summary: Good read, some inaccuracies Review: Overall, there is little that I can add to all the other reviews. The story is has good hooks, and is an entertaining read. I have three criticisms. One, Patterson refers to Lorton Prison as a federal prison. It was not. Lorton was a facility of DC corrections. DC leased the land from the federal government. Second, Patterson confuses schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder when he says, "Schizophrenia is better than eating alone." Finally, the "pattern" of the killer is a bit sophmoric. Totally invented, bearing little resemblance to anything that is actually real. But again, overall it was a pleasing read.
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