The Midnight Club

Rating:
Summary: Worth the time it takes to read it
Review: I don't think James Patterson will ever write as good as he does when he writes about Alex Cross. However, this is the first NON Alex Cross book of Patterson's that I have been able to finish. The story in this book was a good one, but it got a little confusing with so many different members of the Club. I felt the author should have focused more on the one main villain in the Midnight Club rather than trying to draw in more of them and show their different personalities. This was a fairly decent read, but I felt that putting the lead character in a wheelchair was a forced flaw. Most of Patterson's lead characters are really not flawed at all, but this one was way too obvious. I felt that the love story was a bit predictable and it seemed forced to me. The contempt these two characters felt for each other at the beginning was a waste of time - it was obvious how that would turn out. All in all, not bad for not having Alex Cross.

Rating:
Summary: A little slow
Review: This was a good book. I have been a Patterson far for almost a year now and I have read every book that I could get my hands on. This book just felt a bit slow to me in the middle. I guess that I have grown used to the Alex Cross action...

Rating:
Summary: So predicatble, so very, very predictable
Review: Nothing much to say. Lets see, after you are put in a wheelchair and your wife and partner are killed by a crime boss, you go and taunt him and then are surprised that he comes after you and your girlfriend in her home. Hmmm, maybe staying hidden might have been a bit smarter...

Like I said, no suspense, no thought required. James Patterson has many good books. This however isn't one of them

Rating:
Summary: Its good
Review: In James Patterson's, The Midnight Club, Patterson uses a variety of literary devices to enhance his writing. First, Patterson uses just about every element of plot in this book. He uses rising action and complications to create vivid pictures of what is happening. For example, when Alexandre St.- Germain, the antagonist, is supposedly killed at the beginning of the book. This poses a complication because the "bad guy" is killed early in the book, or so you think. Also, there were many things that could only be answered through the climax. This rising action helped in creating suspense. Second, suspense was used throughout the book to keep you turning the pages. Wanting to know what would happen next. Further the short one to three page chapters assisted in producing suspense. These short chapters make it easier to read allowing us as the readers to get into a flow. At every thrilling and suspenseful moment the reader is forced to consider all possibilities. It is impossible to guess what will happen next. Last, Patterson is among the best at concocting riveting and exceptional serial killers while still manufacturing detectives who are heroic and complex. He reveals his characters personalities only through their actions and thoughts. Each character has a purpose and is used to make the book better. James Patterson's use of literary devices not only uplifts the books quality but also help the readers to understand it. Patterson shows why he is considered one of the masters of writing a true thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is a wonderful James Patterson book. This is the ninth James Patterson book I have read, and he is my favorite writer. His short chapters make the book more suspenseful, and I love his alternating points of views. Also, this book has a great villian that should rank up there with Darth Vader and Hannibal Lector.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable Pablum
Review: I picked this book up at an airport, curious to see what James Patterson was about. His books are everywhere and they obviously are very popular. Hence I thought I was in for a good dectective story.

The start of the book was pretty good - it moved well and kept my attention. Unfortunately, after about page 15 the book went downhill into an unrealistic, melodramatic rehashing of every bad cliche known to the detective story genre. While setting them out here might be considerred spoilers - they are so obvious pages in advance only the most dim-witted reader could miss them - our hero is not killed but rather paralysed by the shot-gun blasts to his body (remarkably bad shooting from point blank range); his wife is brutaly murdered by the bad guy who shot him; his partner is killed - just before he could give him the piece of information that would have put the whole puzzle together; there is a world-wide consipracy of crime that our hero is battling; there is a romance between the hard-working single mother investigative journalist and our hero; that romance takes them to the farm where our hero grew up to meet the simple hardworking folk that raised him; the influence of the world-wide conspiracy reaches into the highest levels of the police force - I'm sure that there are many, many more but I finally threw the book down in disgust.

This leads me to the question - is this a typical James Patterson book (ie. are they all this bad) or is this a bad book that would never have seen the light of day but for the latter success of James Patterson's other titles? I am very curious about this because I can not believe that anyone this popular consistently writes books this bad.

Under this system the least you can give a book is one star. This book should be given negative stars - in fact what I really want is to get back the time I wasted reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: New York Detective Battles an International Crime Syndicate
Review: New York police detective John Stefanovitch is pursuing Alexandre St.Germaine, a leader of the Midnight Club, an elite, international group of criminals. When Stefanovitch gets too close, St. Germaine strikes back. He murders Stefanovitch's wife and barely misses killing Stefanovitch, but wounds him so badly that the detective is confined to a wheelchair. This does not stop the detective's relentless pursuit, even while fellow detective's are murdered. Finally, police and FBI undertake all-out war against the Midnight Club. The story is not up to Patterson's Alex Cross tales, but it is entertaining reading through the long battle between police and the Midnight Club.

Rating:
Summary: Midnight club excellent addition to any book club
Review: This book is just as good as the Alex Cross series and has one of the best villains ever created. The basic plot is that there is one organisation that every mafia, crime and drug organisation is controlled by. The killer in this book is the head of this organisation.

The detective in The Midnight Club is also an interesting character being that he is confined to a wheel chair.

A lot of reviews seem to dislike this book but I think it is sensational. For those who have never read a Patterson novel it is also great as you do not have to be familiar with any other books to fully appreciate the characters. For those who have read them this is a different detective to follow other than Alex Cross and the Women's Murder Club.

Rating:
Summary: The Midnight Club
Review: A gripping fast-paced thriller featuring a magnetic, courageous protagonist from the #1 best-selling author of Kiss The Girls, Along Came A Spider, Cat & Mouse.

Rating:
Summary: no midnight reading
Review: The book starts great. Interesting characters, with high expectations as to how the plot will develop. Three quarters through the book it becomes predictable, and with to many loose ends.