review

been to see a whole heap of movies recently and no doubt i will write about them another day. tonight though i am going to briefly mention james patterson's "london bridges". now i don't claim to be a literary authority, i will leave that to emma and cliff, both of whom read much more impressive books than me. yet even i know when i have been sold a pup. patterson is one of the most successful novelists writing today. he writes thrillers, he does romances and his books have been made into films.

the lead character is alex cross, a black (though only once in the book is this mentioned, though it is referred to often by references to things such as food and music. in cross' world there seems to be no such thing as racism or resentment) fbi agent who used to be a washington cop and a published psychologist. not only is he a brianiac he is also an action hero who gets to drive fast and kick in doors with swat teams. the character is crying out for denzil or wesley to play him in a movie, bizarrely the two films that have been made of alex cross adventures have featured morgan freeman in the lead role.

there have been 10 books in the cross series. i have only read one. i will not be reading another.
cross has to go up against two of his most despicable foes: the weasel (a british serial killer) and the wolf (a russian mafiya kingpin super duper bad guy).
the wolf is trying to hold the world to ransom. he wants billions in cash and political criminals released. if he doesn't get his money then bombs will start going off everywhere. in fact several bombs get detonated in the first half of the book. but the wolf doesn’t have any old bomb he had suitcase dirty nukes. all very topical.
everything is written in short chapters, there is no real reason the chapters are short as in most cases they just seem to be paragraph breaks. but as dan brown has shown: make the chapters short and it makes for a page-turner as you will read "just one more chapter" before you put the book down.
true the book rips along at a fair old pace. cross goes to france, he goes to london, and he goes here he goes there. he gains partners, he loses partners, people in the cia are murdered, places are blown up, double crosses take place, and whooosh it all rushes by.
there is an attempt to make cross a real person. he is conflicted by the loss of his first wife (she died in a previous novel) the fact that he is separated from his second wife and their child, that the woman he is currently in love with lives the other side of the country. throw in some moments of self-doubt that almost verge on self pity and you have a complex character. oh sorry i forgot cross is relentless - he always gets his man, never gives in. there you go i have given the character as much depth as patterson has bothered to do. compared with the other characters in the book alex cross is a finely wrought sketch of human strengths and foibles. the others are lucky to be 2 dimensional!
the plot is built upon set piece on set piece and upon coincidence and the timely solving of clues (given that the wolf character appeared in a previous book you have to wonder why they didn't solve them there as well).
description is kept to a minimum. it is mainly dialogue and exposition. alex cross is written in the first person, when other characters take the stage they are written in the third person. makes no odds they are still written badly.
and that is the great crime of this book is that it is so badly written. the fact that it is a simple read is all that got me to the end (that and the fact i don't like not finishing books). i found myself snigger as i read it. as i have said i am not a reader of fine literature - hell i like doc savage books and loved the executioner series, but this is just total tripe.
avoid at all costs.

if you are looking for good crime and thriller writers check out john connolly, robert crais, carl hiaasen and michael connolly all far superior to james patterson and much more deserving of his success.

the verdict from pat is that james patterson's "london bridges" sucks the big one. you have been warned.