by John Carruthers

Created on: April 29, 2009   Last Updated: May 01, 2009

James Patterson seems to be able to churn out books faster than most people are able to read them. Okay, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in some respects, because he does sometimes co-author books with other people. You've probably seen them. They usually have the name JAMES PATTERSON in massive letters at the top of the book, then the title in slightly smaller letters and then at the bottom in the smallest font possible without actually having the tag "I'm seriously taking the mickey," you have the co-author's name.

Still, he must literally spend every hour of the day behind a desk writing. I don't know if he would even have time to take a nap, which I guess sometimes shows in his writing style.

Anyway, literally every time I walk into a Bookshop (which is quite often being the bibliophile that I am) he seems to have another one out. Jeez.

One of his most famous creations must be Alex Cross, the detective who has appeared in... a lot of books. I could probably work out how many but that would involve having to recite a lot of nursery rhymes and that would take some time. If you've not read any of the books then you might have seen the two films that were made, with a woefully miscast Morgan Freeman. I mean that guy is a genius in the field of acting. If he can't make the role work, then it really wasn't right for him.

Basically Alex Cross lost his wife. She was murdered and he never managed to solve it. He never seems to have any real time to mourn because he usually manages to jump into bed with someone every second book. I say every second book because usually he starts a relationship in one and it ends horribly in the next. He's forever on the rebound. Tragic I suppose. So now Alex Cross puts serial killers behind bars and he is actually quite good at it.

This Book, Cross, marks the point where James Patterson could not be bothered thinking of any Nursery Rhyme titles for his books (which is a shame because I couldn't wait for Humpty Dumpty) and has started to use plays on his titular characters name. Okay Cross isn't a very good one but coming after this you have Double Cross and Cross Country. I think the next one after that will be something witty like Cross Stitch or Hot Cross Bun. But we'll wait and see.

James Patterson's writing style just seems so lazy sometimes and his plots overly complex... but somehow seeming so simple because of the aforementioned writing style. But he is a best selling author (probably because even though I don't rate him I read everything he writes and I bet a lot of other people do).

Cross is a difficult book to review because it is like everything he has written and the moment you put it down it starts to fade into memory. So the irony that this review seems like lazy writing and an over simplification is not lost on me.

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