FICTION
Released: March 26, 2012
"Patterson (The Christmas Wedding, 2011, etc.) and Ellis (Breach of Trust, 2011, etc.) make the pages fly without creating a single memorable character or asking you to take any of their variously glossy or gritty menace seriously."
A girls-only weekend turns deadly for four friends who find that what happens in Monte Carlo definitely doesn't stay in Monte Carlo.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 13, 2012
"A pleasant romp all the same; as lightweight as a whiffleball--but fun. "
Zingy formula--emphasis on formula--fiction from the literary maquiladora that is James Patterson.
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FICTION
Released: Oct. 17, 2011
"A perfect plot for a Meryl Streep or Diane Lane happily-ever-after movie."
CHILDREN'S
Released: Dec. 13, 2010
"A new low in children's publishing. (Fantasy. 9-12)"
Whit and Wisty Allgood, sibling magic-users with amazingly unreliable powers, return to fight with their utterly expendable teen comrades against The One Who Is The One, dread master of the New Order, who hates the young and those with imagination (Witch & Wizard, 2009).
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CHILDREN'S
Released: April 1, 2010
"A perfect prescription for misery-memoir maniacs. (Memoir. YA)"
From five to 18, Cory Friedman was prescribed over 30 different medications to control obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Dec. 14, 2009
"You'll have to purchase it due to the ad campaign and author-branding, just don't invest too heavily—save your dollars for better. (Fantasy. 10-14)"
FICTION
Released: Nov. 13, 2006
"The biggest disappointment, though, is an ending that makes you realize you should have skipped this installment and waited for the sequel."
Dr. Alex Cross goes up against the psychopath who killed his wife, with eminently predictable results.
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 14, 2005
"Certainly not the worst of Patterson's clueless mysteries, but still another likely candidate to be filmed as "a big, dopey thriller based on a dopey bestseller." "
Superstar psychologist Alex Cross's quality time with his kids is interrupted by…another serial killer!
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CHILDREN'S
Released: April 11, 2005
"Speed, suspense, excitement. (Science fiction. YA)"
FICTION
Released: Nov. 5, 2003
"As in summer movies, a triple dose of violence conceals the absence of real menace when neither victims nor avengers stir the slightest sympathy."
Dr. Alex Cross has left Metro DC Homicide for the FBI, but it's business as usual in this laughably rough-hewn fairy tale of modern-day white slavery.
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FICTION
Released: June 9, 2003
"Patterson's sensibility dovetails perfectly with that of his prodigies, whose tender feelings and pitch-perfect teenage dialogue are the best things here. It's only when human grownups have to talk and act that this overblown saga sags."
This sequel to Patterson's bestselling, and best, novel (
When the Wind Blows, 1998) soars, like its appealing cast, only intermittently.
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 18, 2002
"Short chapters, paragraphs, and sentences; stilted dialogue; facile plotting; a few feeble passes at description: a Patterson blue-plate special."
Schematic and pedestrian, Patterson's latest (after
The Beach House, p. 519) pits Alex Cross against a trio of serial killers.
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FICTION
Released: June 10, 2002
"A vigilante pipe-dream topped off by toothlessly shocking revelations about characters even less substantial than the celebrity cameos: Dominick Dunne, Latrell Sprewell, Geraldo Rivera, and Billy "Mudman" Simon."
Not to fear: Just because megaselling Patterson has teamed up once more with journalist collaborator de Jonge (
Miracle on the 17th Green, 1996) doesn't make the pace of this slick, ludicrous thriller any slower, the puppets any more complex, or the sentences any longer.
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FICTION
Released: March 4, 2002
"Lots of slam-bang action, though, except for Lindsay, the alleged action heroines mostly have it happen to them instead of dishing it out."
A murder outside San Francisco's La Salle Heights Church brings back the Women's Murder Club, extending a series (
1st to Die, 2001) that could rival Kinsey Millhone for sales, if not for ingenuity, warmth, or humanity.
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 19, 2001
"A real test for Patterson's huge audience: If they buy this, they'll buy anything."
Only a writer of Patterson's star-wattage could have hoodwinked his publisher into bringing out this unlovely mess, which pits forensic psychologist Alex Cross against two separate serial killers.
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FICTION
Released: April 1, 2001
"Bargain-basement plotting, fewer thrills than a tax audit, and cardboard sleuths poised to return for a sequel. But the relentless velocity is guaranteed to hook fans of the bestselling Patterson, who'll presumably be hearing from the police the next time somebody declares war on young love."
FICTION
Released: Nov. 20, 2000
"As usual, Patterson (Cradle and All, p. 262, etc.) provides a nonstop alternation of felonies and righteous retribution unclouded by texture, thought, or moral complexity, to produce the speediest tosh on the planet. "
Who's robbing all those banks and kidnapping all those people and killing all those accomplices? It's somebody calling himself the Mastermind--a comic-book sobriquet that represents everything that's wrong with the latest installment in Patterson's Alex Cross franchise.
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FICTION
Released: May 22, 2000
"Post-Exorcist horror clichés, updated with a handful of contemporary references."
Warn the fans: this isn't a new Alex Cross psychokiller foray (Pop Goes the Weasel, 1999, etc.), but instead a rewritten and retitled version of Virgin, Patterson's apocalyptic 1980 horror novel.
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FICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 1996
"Even Patterson's most ardent admirers should beware of this dog."
Can D.C. deputy chief Alex Cross (Hide & Seek, 1995, etc.) stop a demented duo thinning the ranks of the Washington elite en route to assassinating the President?
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FICTION
Released: Jan. 3, 1996
"Fit only for those who find Sidney Sheldon too sophisticated."
Another chill-free thriller from Patterson (Kiss the Girls, 1995, etc.), this one pitting a chanteuse with a past against one of recent history's more improbable psychopaths.
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