"It was ok" sums up my feelings towards this book fairly well. I borrowed it from a friend who bought in the airport on our way to New Zealand and couldn't fit it in his bag on the trip home. Spoilers follow.First of all I didn't love the narraters voice, it didn't seem to change despite the perspective of the book being from various characters. However, I found the way new characters and perspectives introduced well written though. It was not overwhelming to end up with chapters written by four or five separate characters by the end, and the flow of when they were added seemed logical and pleasant to read.The main character, Detective Alex Cross, is an obvious attempt by Patterson at creating some sort of James Bond serial character. I mean, just look at the cover with the little man in a suit running dramatically inside the 'o' of Cross. Everything went so ludicrously well for him, I mean apart from his entire family being kidnapped by a psychopathic lunatic on a murderous rampage, but it just seemed over the top sometimes. The amount of times he asked random people for help on his mission (after he'd been put on medical leave from the police force I might add) just by saying he was a cop and neglecting to show his badge (Oh wait, his superiors have that) was insane. It's a fairly predictable story, and it annoyed me immensely how obvious some plot twists were while the characters seemed so clueless (these are experienced homicide detectives, are they not?) Was it really so hard for the detectives to consider that the bodies they first found were perhaps not Cross' family seeing as they had every single identifying feature removed? Don't they watch cop shows? Geez! In saying that, however, there were enough surprises and page-turniness to keep me interested enough to finish it.Overall I liked it enough to read it through and I thought it could make a good TV mini series or something, although it's not at all like we have a shortage of police procedurals. It made a nice easy read, perfect for the airport. Oh, Alex Cross, how I love you. You and your family have been a part of my life since high school, and I never get tired of you (except for Cross Country-who wrote that???). I can't give anything away about this one but I cried more than once, or twice, and I'm not even done with it (I'm just assuming the ending is going to work out...otherwise I may be changing this review. You know what I'm talking about, Patterson!) But, with only 100 pages to go, I trust I will still love it. If anyone can catch "the perfect criminal", serial killer Marcus Sunday, and save Alex's entire (and I do mean ENTIRE, Patterson!) family, it's him. Get 'em!
