James Patterson has written 18
books including the new extension to the
Alex Cross series ‘
Violets are
Blue’ which has not been released yet, it goes out on sale November 19th in the U.S.A. Seven of his books starting with ‘
Along Came A Spider’ involve the same main character called Alex
Cross. This series of books are so
gripping that you
physically can not put them
down. You keep saying to yourself ‘oh just this one last chapter’ but the chapters are written in such a way that once you get to the end of each chapter you
must continue. Each chapter is
short and James ends each chapter in a way that you have to know what happens next, for example if the chapter ends by saying ‘I
felt like
dying, then everything went
black’ you have to turn the next page to find out if the character is okay, however once you have done this, you think to yourself ‘ I’ve already read the first line, I might as well finish the rest of the chapter’. Hence the
cycle continues until before you know it, the
day has become
night, your
hungry but you don’t care, you
smell from not having showered all day, the
phone has been ringing because you’ve missed work but it just becomes background
noise and your
eyes are wet from tiredness, but you still continue, why? Because James Patterson books enthral you.
You are left with shock and an aching to read the next book in the series because these books are linked in such a way that there could be multiple storylines going on that begin in one book and finish in another. For example you could be confused when reading one book into thinking that you’ve read this page before, but you think you can’t have because it is in the middle of the new book that you haven’t read yet, however it is more likely that you have read it before. This is hard to explain but his books are linked in that you read one book and you read it from the view point of one character, in this time span, there is of course another character doing other things, you get to find out what the other character has been doing in the same time span, in the next book. Therefore the page that you think you’ve read before is when the two characters view points of the same time span become one. It is kind of like movies such as ‘GO’ and ‘Snatch’, in the sense that you get to see the same time span in the views of different characters.
I read this series with the Alex Cross character out of order because I saw the movie ‘Kiss the Girls’ which was based on the second book of this series. I started to read the books in the order that I could get them from the local library. I wish I had read them in order because I think it would have made even more of an impact. Which would have been quite massive.
It is annoying that movies based on this series of James Patterson books have also been made out of order and not according to the storyline. The first book in the series ‘Along Came A Spider’ became a movie after ‘Kiss the Girls’, further more, in the movie ‘Along Came A Spider’ they kill off one of the main characters in the first three books of the series, obviously no more movies based on this series of books are to be made unless they somehow dramatically change the plot, but then it wouldn’t really be ‘based’ on the books, it would just have the same title and similar characters.
I recommend reading the series of James Patterson books with the Alex Cross character in the order that they were written, and when you have HEAPS of spare time.
The order that they were written is ..
1. Along Came A Spider
2. Kiss the Girls
3. Jack and Jill
4. Cat and Mouse
5. Pop Goes the Weasel
6. Roses are Red
7. Violets are Blue
Of course these books will only interest you if you are into serial killers and detective type of books or movies. I suggest that if you liked the movie ‘Kiss the Girls’ you will like this series of books even better.
I don't know much about the author except that he writes crime books and lives in Florida. I love his books at least so far of the Alex Cross series because I love serial killer books and his books unlike other serial killer books i've read keep me wanting to read until the end and never stop. The way he craftly links his books and the short chapters make it hard to put it down. I've already suggested that people who like the movies and serial books that they should read this series I can't say much for his other books, and I'm not sure if others who are not into serial killer books would like this series. Hence why I don't suggest everyone read them. I haven't really found other authors that write crime books as well as James Patterson, and I have read many. I'm not much of a writer of suspenseful stuff, but what amazes and effects me about James Patterson books based on the Alex Cross character is the style of short chapters that grip and con you into reading the next, very ingenious.