Surprise post

I know it's a Monday and normally I post on a Sunday and even that is not always the case but I just had to get this one review off my chest.


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Four Blind Mice - James Patterson
I have to say that I did not like it much. In fact, I disliked it so much that it has made me return all my Patterson books to the charity shop. Trust me, I never turn a book away and I have never done this before with any author. I never managed to plough my way through Barchester Towers but it still resides in a box somewhere, stored safely away for the time when I feel I can manage to have another go at it. Not so with Patterson. Two books is enough to convince me I will never get to like or enjoy reading him.
Why? Well, it is a number of things that don't sit right with me. When reading Patterson's books I always feel that he does not care about his readers, the story or the characters he writes. To me it seems that even his main protagonist, Alex Cross remains a one dimensional, predictable, uninteresting character. It also seem that Patterson fobs off his readers with formulaic dialogue and set scenarios. Some parts in this one are strangely familiar from the other one I read. Alex falls in love with a woman and thinking about his future with her. He and his partner have an argument at some point. Alex has a blissful family life and a horrible work life that makes him doubt what he does. Copy, paste, next book.
Another thing that annoyed me was that Patterson's chapters sometimes do not even warrant the name. It is like he just wanted to split the story up to have as many chapters as possible. Or that he thought of something else he might as well throw in there to bulk out the story or introduce someone new. His chapters are not really chapters at times, they are too short and the order of them seems random. He switches from one setting to another when you least expect him to. One moment we are investigating the story, getting to the heart of it and the next we get Sampson romancing a witness. Why? It does nothing to help the story along and it does not give me any insight I want or need into the characters involved. It also seems to me that there is a definite and usually obvious lead up to every chapter he writes. I.e. it is a sunny, normal day at the Cross household and see Alex playing with his son. Ergo - something bad is about to happen to Alex. Cue gunfire. Another one, Sampson get to visit and question a witness on his own. Ergo - he must end up in a relationship with her, especially since he has been asking Alex a few chapters earlier how he feels about relationships and his future with his latest conquest. Cue wedding at the end of the book. I would also appreciate if someone could tell me why we are introduced to the lovely neighbourhood doctor, Kayla Coles? If I have learnt one thing from Patterson is that he will stop at nothing to introduce a character he wants to use later on. Any contrived way will do. For the doctor it seems that she has to be introduced solely to give Nana an understanding doctor to talk to. She first pops up when we have the insane scenario of Alex's son needing someone to save his friend who has been playing around with drugs. Then she pops up again when Nana feels ill and she even ends up at the Sampson's wedding at the end (Yeah, I know, I was as surprised as the next guy that after all those visits to the witness and his talk about relationships that Sampson would get married!). I am not sure why she is there but I am sure if I ever read Patterson's next book she would pop back up. Probably as some kind of bunny boiler doctor that Alex has to investigate in relation to some mysterious deaths in a nursing home.
Anyway, what is this one about? Not a lot really but for those that still care after all the above to put you off... here it goes. It seems that military men are being set up for murders they did not commit (by the way, do we find out if any of them get off as a result of what Alex discovers? NO! Disappointing!). After some investigating and some help from his new friends at the FBI Alex figures out who the guys are. They turn out to be a bunch of former soldiers who were involved in some bad stuff in Vietnam. Naturally, they are the best of buddies, all like shooting guns and killing people for no apparent reason. There is a bit of twaddle about the grey wall of silence in the army but Alex persists (well, he would) and in the end him and Sampson go and confront them. Of course that is exactly what you expect from the ever clever Alex, for him to place himself in a situation where it is almost certain he may get killed. 3 Former soldiers versus one smart (I use the term loosely) investigator and his partner.. wonder what the odds on that one were at the bookies. Ludicrous! Sampson gets hurt in the inevitable shoot out but I wasn't worried about him for a minute, not when he was proclaimed to be in love several chapters before. As if we had not had enough to deal with Patterson also brings is his former nemesis again for no apparent reason than to fill a few pages. The brain behind the operation tuns out to be some army guy who felt that people had to pay for the atrocities they committed in Vietnam. How... by setting them up for crimes they did not commit... of course. To be honest it could have been the local butcher who set them up for all I cared by the end. Naturally when Alex goes to see this guy on his own he gets into a spot of bother. You would think that the files having come from the FBI that those boys would keep a leash on Alex but no. Knowing that Patterson would not kill him off I bravely read on and found that indeed Alex was saved. Hurrah.

So, I think it is fair to say that I did not really enjoy this one. The story was predictable, ramshackle and at times ludicrous. I disliked the fact that there was no development or depth in any of the characters. They are all stereotypes. There are some vague attempts to give the whole thing more depth (e.g. Alex new relationship, the Vietnam back story) but for me it falls flat and does not work. At no point did I get engrossed in the story or really cared about how it would develop. I just kept reading because before I knew it, I was at the end of another chapter and once you get going you may as well finish the thing. There was a twist of sorts at the end (the other nutter Alex met on death row was involved as well) but I did not really care. There was no attempt to make me like the character when he was introduced so why would I care about his motives. 

This was the second Patterson book I have read and it was equally disappointing as the first one. Therefore I have decided that this is where mine and Mr Patterson's paths in life diverge and I fervently hope we will never meet again. I am sure Patterson is not bothered... the feeling is mutual.


Title: Four Blind Mice
Author: James Patterson
387 pages
Headline
ISBN# 0-7472-6692-1

Books to be read: 133