Violets Are Blue

Rating:
Summary: Just Shoot Him
Review: Would someone just shoot Alex Cross and put him out of our misery!? Same story, same character, same ending, blah, blah, blah!

Just when I thought that Patterson had come up with a new character in "1st To Die" (which I loved) he has to come back with yet ANOTHER Alex Cross novel.

If you've read one book in the Alex Cross series, you've read them all. Isn't Nana Mama too old to be taking care of those bloody kids? Put the woman in a retirement home and raise your own family!

Rating:
Summary: Plot IncludesTwo Mystery
Review: VIOLETS ARE BLUE By James Patterson 1/15/02
Two Mystery Stories For One
I have been enjoying books by James Patterson ever since I came across them a few years ago. I have a fondness for the characters Alex Cross, his friends and his family. Alex Cross is a detective with the police force in Washington, DC who is used as a liaison with the FBI and other police forces in the USA. He has solved many difficult murders and has quite a reputation.

Alex looses a good friend, a female FBI agent who was murdered in Virginia by the Mastermind who then called him on his mobile phone at the scene of the crime to challenge him. Before he can grasp the whole story; a friend, Kyle Craig, FBI, requests his help to help with another murder on the other side of the USA. This murder was similar to another one that Alex had investigated in DC earlier and that was still open.

This book switches very early to a case about a sect of live vampires, and again Alex has been called from Washington D. C. to the west coast to help the San Francisco police with a case of two weird murders there.

Alex hopes that he will get a rest from the Mastermind, but of course he doesn't. The Mastermind is right with him wherever he goes. The murders on the west coast had similar aspects to one in DC. The victims in San Francisco and the one in DC had been gnawed on and were hung upside down with apparently a lot of blood drained out of their bodies.

The novel has two mysteries interwoven, the Mastermind and the vampires. While Alex is working on the serial murders by the vampires the Mastermind is constantly harassing him with phone call and the threat of additional murders of his family and friends-two of which he carried out.

Although this story had a lot of murders in several States and plenty of suspense, it was not as good as a few of his first books or I'm getting jaded, one or the other. Even though, in the end he solves both of the mysteries, crossing the USA several times in the process. The story has a lot of impact with the super vampires and the Mastermind.

I like his short chapters and good writing. I think it's worth four stars.

Rating:
Summary: This was a great book.......
Review: I am a really big fan of Mr. Patterson. As a person who has read everyone of his books, this one was one of my favorite. His books keep me on the edge. And this book was no different. I simply loved it. I could not put it down, I read it in one day. It was great, one page after another. It keeps you wondering and on the edge of you seat. I did not know the Mastermind was after reading Roses are Red, so I was very edger to find out. I thought it was a crazy family or John Sampson(Alex's childhood friend), but the end proved me wrong. James Patterson is a great writer and his books are execllent. The bad thing is we have to wait to long to read another great book. And then some times he don't write a book about Alex. So its a while before we could read about him. He need to write a litter faster. Maybe write two books about Alex then write one about something else. This would keep his fans intersted and happy. I hate having to wait so long to read a great book.

Rating:
Summary: I don't think any movies will come out of this one...
Review: I usually don't read other people's reviews before writing my own, so that there won't be a bias (and so that I don't self-censor myself). But I happened to scroll down a bit too far, and the first entry in the review section mentioned that the NY Times says James Patterson can't write. I found that interesting. This is the first James Patterson novel I've read. I realized that this author also wrote the novels on which the movies Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider were based. And I found the movies quite entertaining. I figured "How bad can his books be?". Anyway, enough of my ramblings and onto my impressions of the book.

I found the book to be an easy read. Several chapters are only 2-3 pages long. It starts off with one murder, then another one. And another. And, oh, did i mention there was another one? I'm actually not trying to be funny. He writes in a lot of deaths into this book to establish the cold-bloodedness of Michael and William who are vampires who love to kill. Yeah, you got that right... VAMPIRES. I had to do a double take when I saw what the plot was about to lead to ("Is this an X-File?"). I almost instantly thought I had made a mistake picking up the book. Thankfully, there's a brief introduction that vampirism itself is like an underground cult, nothing more supernatural than that. I just turned on my suspension of disbelief for a while. And that got me through the novel.

Naturally, since this novel is meant to be the sequel to Roses Are Red the Mastermind plays a major role in this story. He taunts and annoys Alex Cross by calling him every day on his cell phone and at the most coincidential of times (when a death has occured). Later on in the novel, it's revealed that the Mastermind is someone Alex Cross knows (I wouldn't want to completely spoil it for you.)

Throughout the novel, Alex thinks about his relationship with his past partners and his current one, Jamilla. He obviously doesn't have time to fool around with Jamilla, although there's a lot of flirting going on. There are times when I found myself saying "Dammit, just get it on!" But he never got it on.

As to whether the reader should buy this novel or not. I would say you should PASS.

FLAP rating:
F:1.5 (He give it a try on the female victims.)
L:3.5 (Simple safe dialogue that doesn't sound too fake, but doesn't emote any feelings.)
A:3.0 (What can i say? It's not meant to be an action novel.)
P:2.5 (Vampires and the betrayal of your best friend? C'mon...)

* For an explanation of this rating system please visit my About You area and look for my review on The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum.

Rating:
Summary: It's a skimmer!
Review: In the past, I've looked forward to James Patterson. His last two books seem, to me, to be more and more violent. It also seems like there's a lot of filler that has to do with his life and family. I also believe that this book is not very well written. I find myself skimming over the boring parts (and there are a lot) to try to find some substance. I've toyed with the idea of just putting it down and I may still do it. I'm not a writer but I am an avid reader and this book doesn't even come close to being good. I can't recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed...
Review: I love James Patterson anytime for a quick, easy but page turning novel. Over the years I have come to depend on his Alex Cross detective series as a sure fire good book. Roses are Red was decent, and I was looking forward to reading this book as a follow up.
But follow up it wasn't! Because the same exact character was again weaved throughout the book. When I first read the Mastermind called him, I thought I was imagining that he had been discovered in the last book. And then I looked back andrealized that in fact he had -- and in Violets are Blue, he was resurrected as the same exact character, right down to the end. I was so annoyed by this. And the writing in this book wasn't as good as usual, in part, because it kept detailing old crimes. It was in serious need of editing.
I heard that the next new Women's Murder Club is soon to be released, and I will purchase it. As I would the next in the Cross series. But maybe it is time for Cross to take a new path in a new career. Or something. Anything. But not this again. I wanted my money back by the end. I am not ready to give up yet, but if I ever have to waste my time reading another book with exactly the same plot as the last one, I will.

Rating:
Summary: It makes sense if you think about it.
Review: I couldn't wait for this book to come out. After reading "Roses are Red", I thought that James Patterson had some explaining to do regarding the identity of the Mastermind. Who cares if we already knew who the Mastermind was.(FYI: For those who did not read Roses are Rd, it's a good idea to read it first.) After reading Violets are Blue, the stroy behind the mastermind makes sense, if you stop and think about it. Just look back at the entire Alex Cross series and you will see subtitle hints that clue into the mind of the Mastermind. I am looking forward to what happens next.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting!
Review: I had read James Patterson's 1st to Die (which was good, but sad) and then went on to other authors for a while. Then I saw the blurb/excerpt for Violets are Blue. The name Jamilla Hughes jumped out at me and I decided to be pick up the book to see if Alex Cross was indeed an African American detective. To my delight he was!

(But not blatantly, it's written so that he could be any ethnicity)

Due to the author's short chapters I find myself flying through the book. It's very good and I can't wait to finish it and go backwards to the beginning!! I recommend starting at the beginning to anyone.

Good book~

Rating:
Summary: Not up to par.
Review: After managing to finish Robin Cook's stupid book, "Shock," I had hoped to find something much better. Didn't do it with "Violets Are Blue." I wish there was someone writing about something plausible. Even Cornwell's new book was less than expected.
Don't buy a new copy of "Violets Are Blue." If you must read Patterson, get a used book, or get from someone who paid! Far-fetched, ridiculous, a quick read but violent and descriptive.

Rating:
Summary: Its just....different from the past Cross novels.
Review: There is no way I can let this book slide with a four! This book compared to ROSES ARE RED was a pretty bad book. I loved the previous book so I picked this up. Boy was I surprised.

First of all, if you haven't read ROSES ARE RED than don't read this book because this will completely spoil the book for you. The Mastermind returns (as if we don't already know who he is!) in this book....well sorta. What I mean is Patterson went and explained the plot with the vampires for the first like 100 chapters. Then for the last 16 it was all the mastermind!

Now, is it just me, or was the vampire plot a little corney and predictable? Well it was. You can easily figure out who the sire is. The plot involving the vampires and such was not a very good one.

Now for you Alex Cross fans out there. Is this book really worth it to the fans of the Cross series. Well, not really. Allow me to explain. Alex is usually a logical, strong person. In Violets he ain't very strong. In fact he pretty much turned into a coward. Don't get me wrong! I like Alex Cross, but in this book he wasn't the best and he was too busy being scared of getting close to someone rather than solving the case.

How Cross figures out who the mastermind is ...(pretty bad) too. He usually figures stuff out more logically than that. In this he simply looked across the street! Does that mean he could've seen anybody and jumped to the conclusion that the one he saw was the Mastermind? It seems so. While I was surprised with how Cross caught the Mastermind though.

The character developement is all wrong. The characters seem like completely different people! Sampson (crosses partner) doesn't even play a large part in this book the way he did in the previous ones!

I know this deals with Cross' personal issues but where was the action that kept me on the edge of my seat the way "Kiss the Girls" or "Pop Goes the Weasel" did? What happened to his "formula"? It was working perfectly until now!

Well, as far as short chapters go I was okay with it. Being that when I get home after a long day I'm exhausted, and like to stop on chapters. Now when I come home after a long day. I usually read. I hate stopping in the middle of a chapter though. So I can't read a book where the chapters are like 40 pages! But when I see Patterson books I'm usually saying "I'm tired, but I can scrounge up three pages."

Anyway, I'm a James Patterson fan, but this book was just as bad as "Cradle and All" was! I doubt this much, but the book was probably worse than that one. If you like Alex Cross I guess its worth a try, but other than that you should probably stay away from this book and go find a better one like "Roses Are Red" or maybe "Along Came a Spider." But this book just isn't worth it.