Roses are Red (Hardcover)

I'm serious about stopping before the last two pages. In fact, cover them with a sheet of paper so you don't accidentally see anything on it. Reading the last two pages of Roses Are Red will reduce the attractiveness of this story to you, and eliminate most of the potential pleasure you can experience in Violets Are Blue, the next Alex Cross novel. The last two pages of Roses Are Red simply should have been edited out! Be cautious about which reviews you read of this book also, because some reviews reveal the material on those two pages . . . the ultimate in giving away a spoiler!

Mr. Patterson's strength is writing plots that are well paced, varied, surprising, and unusual. I thought that his plotting in Roses Are Red was unusually good. You will find yourself racing through the book, wanting to find out what's going on and who's behind it all.

The book's main theme is crime as a work of art expressing the ingenuity of a brilliant, but twisted criminal. As a result, the crimes are mentally very challenging to understand. You will think that you are reading about the criminal plans of Dr. Moriarty, Sethos, and the Riddler combined.

The weaknesses of Mr. Patterson's Alex Cross novels are also present here. He doesn't really show any detection, just detectives chatting with each other interspersed with developments driven by the criminals. The characters are about as little developed as they could be and still be differentiated from one another. The dialogue often reads like detective fiction rather than real dialogue.

But if you feel that you have enjoyed other Alex Cross novels, you will definitely like this one.

After you read Violets Are Blue, come back and read the last two pages of Roses Are Red.

Where else can less be more? Would the story, "The Lady or the Tiger," have been as interesting to you if you knew how it turned out?

Grasp the exact solution to provide the most for the least effort!

The story revolves around Detective Cross' attempts to track down a mysterious killer - the self styled Mastermind - whose particularly brutal in his methods and ensures that anyone who garners any information about him isn't alive to tell anyone.

Patterson's short chapters really help his books to move along at a fast pace and this ensures that 'Roses Are Red' has a whirlwind pace to it as it builds to it's conclusion.

And it's that which is where the problems start.

The ending felt like it was a cheat somehow, especially as there had been no indication of it coming and it seemed designed mainly to promote Patterson's next book in the series.

It's a shame that the ending left me feeling this way as otherwise it would have been an excellent book as good as many of Patterson's previous ones.

I'm serious about stopping before the last two pages. In fact, cover them with a sheet of paper so you don't accidentally see anything on it. Reading the last two pages of Roses Are Red will reduce the attractiveness of this story to you, and eliminate most of the potential pleasure you can experience in Violets Are Blue, the next Alex Cross novel. The last two pages of Roses Are Red simply should have been edited out! Be cautious about which reviews you read of this book also, because some reviews reveal the material on those two pages . . . the ultimate in giving away a spoiler!

Mr. Patterson's strength is writing plots that are well paced, varied, surprising, and unusual. I thought that his plotting in Roses Are Red was unusually good. You will find yourself racing through the book, wanting to find out what's going on and who's behind it all.

The book's main theme is crime as a work of art expressing the ingenuity of a brilliant, but twisted criminal. As a result, the crimes are mentally very challenging to understand. You will think that you are reading about the criminal plans of Dr. Moriarty, Sethos, and the Riddler combined.

The weaknesses of Mr. Patterson's Alex Cross novels are also present here. He doesn't really show any detection, just detectives chatting with each other interspersed with developments driven by the criminals. The characters are about as little developed as they could be and still be differentiated from one another. The dialogue often reads like detective fiction rather than real dialogue.

But if you feel that you have enjoyed other Alex Cross novels, you will definitely like this one.

After you read Violets Are Blue, come back and read the last two pages of Roses Are Red.

Where else can less be more? Would the story, "The Lady or the Tiger," have been as interesting to you if you knew how it turned out?

Grasp the exact solution to provide the most for the least effort!