Double Cross (Alex Cross) Review

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(More customer reviews)(Note: this review contains minor spoilers.)
I received this book by accident from BOMC, as I did not respond in time to my monthly selection. It had been a long time since I read one of James Patterson's novels, so I decided to go ahead and give this one a try. Initially, it was a rapid page-turner, with one dramatic scene following quickly on the heels of another. But about a third of the way through, I just stopped, no longer intrigued, as I discovered that these bite-size chapters - 126 in a 300-page book - were just that, authorial cop-outs which allowed him to spoon-feed drama to the reader without actually earning suspense, intrigue, or suspension of disbelief.
If you ran the text together, removing the half-page graphic that begins, and the empty space that ends, each chapter, this story would take up probably no more than 150 pages. In those few pages, Patterson introduces us to 35 speaking characters identified by their first and last names, three killers and their ten alternate identities, and one copycat killer. Fifteen adults (and one foetus) are killed, their murders described in moderate detail (as much as a one-to-two page chapter allows, anyway). Patterson also follows a number of characters as they fly to such far-flung locations as Washington, DC, Florence, Colorado, Kalispell, Montana, and even Paris, France, traversing the globe as quickly and easily as if they were hopping on BART or the MTA.
What Patterson DOESN'T describe is how his various killers gain access to a number of the victims, some of whom are FBI agents highly trained in the art of self defense. Or how they get away from the scene of such crimes, especially when they are committed for maximum spectatorship. Or how the guards in a maximum-security prison handling a criminal the equivalent of Ted Bundy in notoriety and body count could be fooled by a change of clothing and a latex mask. Or how that same killer, with a nationwide APB warrant out for his arrest, can hop a plane to Europe. Nor does Patterson describe much in the way of character development - the only person in the whole book who seems to grow at all is protagonist Alex Cross' son Damon, an extremely ancillary character who gets all of one and a half chapters in the whole book.
And therein lies the double-edged sword of Double Cross: while the extremely short chapters allow Patterson to move the story quickly, they also act as a crutch, allowing him to cheat the hard stuff (as Misery's Annie Wilkes, who knows all about the miracle rescues and impossible escapes from the black and white serials of the fifties, would say, he's a "dirty bird!"). Don't know how to get a character from A to B believably? Use a chapter break! Don't know how to reconcile known police procedures with letting a criminal escape detection? Use a chapter break! Don't know how to plausibly get a young, virile, Quantico-trained FBI agent into the clutches of a known killer? Use a chapter break! While the format initially adds to the excitement of the read, it ultimately allows Patterson to cheat the reader, diminishing the overall experience.
While this is certainly not the worst book I've read in years, it's one of the weakest, most derivative of the Alex Cross novels, and of Patterson's work in general. The use of two sets of serial killers does not add much in the way of drama - the killer Kyle Craig does not actually target Cross or anyone known to Cross until the very end of the book, and when he finally does, it is not to kill Cross but to warn him. It feels more like a contrivance in order to fit the title than a well-considered plot device. The sudden love affair with new character Detective Bree Stone also seems manufactured and artificial. In fact, her character seems to exist only to get Cross involved in the case; though he describes Stone, a veteran of the MPD, a full detective, and lead on the investigation, as "poised," "competent," "a pro," and "good at [her job]," it is Cross himself who directs the forensics teams, makes most of the connections and breaks, rescues Stone from reporters' questions during a press conference, and ultimately solves the case. And the way Cross just waltzes into the main investigation of the story in the first place, without ever formally being hired, re-inducted, or contracted, never sits right with me - surely you can't just walk into a live, taped-off crime scene as a civilian with no current ties to the police or FBI? Add to that some weak editing ("...photographs...of...Bree, Sampson, and I," "Who was I trying to kid?," "Kyle Craig had hung himself!," etc.), re-hashed and implausible plotting, and unnatural-sounding dialogue towards the end, and you have yourself what appears to be a phoned-in performance by Patterson running on fumes (and perhaps needing to put braces on the grandkids, or the mortgage for a fifth house).
I have definitely enjoyed other, better books by Mr. Patterson, and have read far worse fiction than Double Cross in the recent past, but would advise anyone tempted to pick this one up to borrow it from the library first, or spend the three hours it'll take to read it with a "free" copy in the aisles of Barnes & Noble - it's just not a keeper.

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Roadworks Review

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(More customer reviews)Hugh Ryan's job might not be glamorous, but it is important. In the near future, Brussels has developed a highly sophisticated traffic network. Computers route cars around conjestion. Huge parking elevators keep cars below ground and yet easily accessible. Efficient trains and a subway system move hundreds of thousands of people to their jobs. When roads fill, computers send cars to another route. When too many become congested, the same computers send the cars to the rapid transit centers. And Hugh, along with a small number of fellow workers, controls the entire system.
When things start to go bad, Hugh springs into action--and the system does its best to self-repair. But the system was never designed to deal with simultaneous toxic truck wrecks in every major intersection, power failure in the subway, the collapse of the train system, and malfunctions in the parking elevators that turn the entire city into a stationary parking lot. Hugh isn't surprised with the call comes in--a terrorist organization is holding the entire city, including heads of state from all of Nato, for ransom.
Reading between the lines of the terrorist threat, Hugh realizes that someone in his own transport agency is somehow involved--and sets out to find who did it. What follows is an action-packed adventure with plenty of plot twists and even a touch of romance.
Author Gerard Readett makes his near-future traffic scenario feel real and interesting. Hugh, with his lost wife and anti-establishment tendencies, makes a sympathetic protagonist and Readett mixes in just enough scenes from those caught up in the disaster--and from the point of view of the criminals and terrorists who combine to take the city captive--to make the action seem real. I wish Readett had relied a bit less on coincidence in putting Hugh in just the right place to do so much against the terrorist threat, but that's a minor quibble with a really fascinating story.

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Roadworks is the story of one man's battle to be free of a system that oppresses him while dragging a hijacked city out of absolute gridlock.In a city where all rail, road and underground traffic is computerised, Hugh Ryan, a Transport Authority controller, has to outwit Akila Kama, an African terrorist who has taken the city and many foreign heads of state hostage. His demands are simple, either the greatest humanitarian aid package is sent to Africa by the nations of the West, or their leaders die.Later Hugh realises that while all traffic inside the city is at a standstill, Wellens, a local crimelord who helped the Africans, has embarked on his own traitorous plans which he hatches with a mole in the Transport Authority.

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