Along Came a Spider
Ratings180
Average rating3.6
I wanted so bad to like this book. I am a real life Black Detective who has spent the last 15 years assigned to the Crimes against Children's unit. I was immediately sold on this book when I found out that Alex Cross was also black. I'm thinking, finally I can read a book with a detective that looks like me. But no, it was immediately obvious that the writer was white. The story is supposed to have taken place in the 90s.
It was like the author kept trying to remind us that Cross is black. The dialogue between black people was horrible. At one point there was dialogue involving a young black teen. The author tried to use ebonics. It was so bad that I didn't even understand what she was saying and I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. At one point Cross referred to himself as the n-word (with the ER) to a black woman. We don't talk like that James Patterson. You could've at least used the a at the end.
Someone also called Cross's girlfriend/killer a n-word lover. It's the 90s James, not the 60s.
Then there was the cross burned in the yard by the KKK
Still one of my favourite JP books out of so many - this fits my mindset - the plot, characters intertwine on a Hitchcockian level (in my humble opinion - and I love Hitchcock) a thrilling read from start to finish
I would give 3.5 if I could. The book is obviously well written, and I loved that Alex Cross, for all his intelligence, is not excessive like a movie character (where the heroes cannot compromise on anything and are always the smartest guys in the room). That made everything more relatable to how a regular person mind works. The story is complex enough and not sugar coated but also not excessively bleak. The clean storyline was well suited to a movie adaptation.
Having a mind-numbing third-shift job that lets you listen to audiobooks while you work has led to me trying authors I don't usually care for, like James Patterson. When you need something to listen to and you're at the mercy of what's available, stuff happens.
I like the concept of Alex Cross. I understand why people like these books. To me, they're just okay. The first two books in the series are salacious for the sake of being salacious. Alex Cross is a frustrating protagonist, though. He's one of those “too good to be real” types who always has women falling for him, and never met a punch he couldn't shake off.
I think that's why I wrote the protagonists I did in my own mystery novel–they're the polar opposite of the Alex Cross-types. There's something exhausting about those beyond perfect protagonists. You just know they're the author's own avatar of who he wants to be, or thinks he is, and that's a little sad.
3.5
It would have been a 4/4.5 star read if it didn't drag on for so long.
But I really enjoyed reading it!! Got book 2 from d library so excited to read it:)
This book had me hooked from start to finish! I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next in the kidnapping saga. I intend to read more books in the Alex Cross series.
The ending of this was really well done but shocking which I liked.
This is the first book in the Alex Cross series.
Alex Cross is an african american police detective with a psychology degree who is investigating a series of murders in the black community when he and his partner (Sammy) is pulled off the case to investigate the high profile kidnapping case involving the child of an actress and the child of the minister of finance.
Patterson does a really good job building the suspense and setting the scene without making gorey descriptions. What he fails at miserably though is writing a sex scene that doesn't make you either spit take you hot beverage or just laugh at the patheticness of. Seriously, they so are terrible that I hope that is was nominated for Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Thankfully that is not what I am reading these books for and I look forward to reading more in this series.
Officially: 2.5 Stars.
Ugh...I hate that I didn't love this book. For all it's popularity, I simply don't understand how people drool all over this story. Alex Cross is a compelling protagonist, but I would like to have seen far more of his human element come through. That is an understandably difficult thing to accomplish and it's hard to offer a coarse opinion. I sympathize and I have no answers. The only benchmark I have is in other author's work. Other authors do it for me.
I did enjoy the book, but it was pretty predictable. Would definitely read more Patterson though.
Alex Cross is a detective and a psychologist and he and his partner are investigating a triple homicide on Southside when they are pulled off the case to help locate two missing children. Alex and his partner are furious that the death of a black family is so easily disregarded and the kidnapping of 2 wealthy white children made the priority. The children were kidnapped from a private school for high profile families who had secret service protection. Alex Cross wants those children found safely but he can't get the image of the little black child that had been murdered out of his mind.
This book is fast-paced and has a lot of twists and turns. It is a great read.
Read for my reader's advisory book group. Enjoyable mystery -
I like the character of Alex Cross. I am planning on read some more of the series.
I hit a September slump and haven't really read a book in days. i needed something that would be fast and quick. James Paterson is amazing. this is the perfect bite of suspense my first alex cross book but not my last.
I don't usually read crime fiction, but I am willing to make an exception for Alex Cross..