Violets Are Blue [Mass Market Paperback]

Fans of James Patterson's resourceful cop Alex Cross will be relieved to find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and, more importantly, that this is one of the best Alex Cross thrillers yet.

The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is fixing to give Alex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in a particularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have been viciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blood drained from their corpses. And when further brutal deaths follow in California and on the East Coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility of modern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the many sinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by Jamilla Hughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds that he has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop further bloodletting.

Patterson fans expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of them here!), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personal life, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resist reading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thriller reader's medal. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Washington, D.C., police detective Alex Cross returns for another visit (after Roses Are Red) to the top of the lists and for two new cases of disparate quality. The first, which dominates the narrative, takes place within America's vampire underground and is as exciting as anything Patterson has written; the second, in which Cross at last defeats the nemesis known as "the Mastermind," feels tacked on only to knot loose ends. In San Francisco, two joggers are slain, seemingly by both tiger and human teeth, and their blood drained; then an upscale couple is killed similarly in Marin County deaths suggestive of an earlier Cross case, prompting the detective's old pal Kyle Craig of the FBI to ask for his help. Craig's plea plunges Cross not only into a fetishistic netherworld in which thousands play at being vampires and a handful actually do kill for blood, but into personal turbulence as he alienates his family by his dedication to work, and as his always troubled love life takes further dips and flights, the latter in the company of SFPD Insp. Jamilla Hughes, who joins him on the cases. We know the good guys' immediate quarry, but they don't: two golden young men, brothers and self-styled vampires, with a pet tiger at their side. But who is the Sire, their ultimate leader? Meanwhile, the Mastermind, a brilliant homicidal maniac, plagues Cross with threatening phone calls. Most readers probably won't finger the Sire, but anyone who can't name the Mastermind long before Patterson reveals his identity must be reading this book backwards. The action reels around the country, from D.C. to California to Las Vegas to North Carolina, and readers will be swept away by it and by Patterson's expert mixing of Cross's professional and personal challenges. The narrative split between the two cases, vampiric and Mastermind, jars but not enough to seriously mar fans' pleasure, and the two cases will probably mesh more elegantly in the inevitable movie to come. (Nov. 19)Forecast: Is there a writer hotter than Patterson? A 10-city author tour, the forthcoming TV miniseries of his First to Die, and the simultaneous AudioBooks (unabridged and abridged, tape and CD) of Violets Are Blue will only increase the heat.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

When two murders in San Francisco recall a case in Washington, DC, that Alex Cross has yet to solve, the wily detective is up and running and he runs straight into a bizarre group of role players who think that they really are vampires.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Patterson's fans have been waiting a year for this one, since the heart-stopping conclusion of the last Alex Cross outing, Roses Are Red (2000), which revealed the identity of Cross' new foe, the Mastermind. The Mastermind is still plaguing him, but he becomes distracted when FBI liaison Kyle Craig calls him in on another case. A new set of killers is on the rampage, viciously attacking their victims and drinking their blood. These vampirelike killings lead Cross to San Francisco, where he partners with detective Jamilla Hughes. Cross interviews people associated with the vampire cults, some of whom actually believe they are vampires. The killers lead Cross and Hughes on a cross-country chase, striking seemingly at random. Cross believes that he may have found a pattern to the murders when he discovers that the killings are taking place in cities at the same time two magicians, David and Charles, are performing. In the meantime, the Mastermind is closing in on Cross, leading to the showdown fans have been waiting for. Patterson has set up a difficult task for himself: to create a confrontation that will be as gratifying as fans expect after the revelation of the Mastermind's identity at the end of Roses Are Red. Though the novel doesn't pack as much punch as it should, since the vampire murders, not the Mastermind, take up the majority of the book, Patterson still manages to come up with a satisfying ending, leaving readers to wonder what is next for Cross. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"Another page-turner . . . You won't be able to put 'Violets' down until you've reached the back cover." (New York Times )

"Particularly juicy . . . Enjoyably spooky . . . Bottom line: bloody good creepfest." (People )

D.C. Detective Alex Cross has seen a lot of crime scenes. But even he is appalled by the gruesome murders of two joggers in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park - killings that look more like the work of savage beasts than humans. Local police are horrified and even the FBI is baffled. Then, as Cross is called in to take on the case, the carnage takes off, leaving a trail of bodies across America and sweeping him to Savannah, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angeles . . as his nemesis, the merciless criminal known as the Mastermind, stalks him, taunts him, and once again, threatens everything he holds dear...

James Patterson is one of the bestselling writers of all time, with more than 170 million books sold worldwide. He is the author of the top-selling detective series of the past twenty years - the Alex Cross novels, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, both of which were made into hit movies. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women's Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the new series of #1 New York Times bestsellers featuring Detective Michael Bennett of the NYPD. He won an Edgar Award, the mystery world's highest honor, for his first novel. He lives in Florida.

When several victims are found covered with bite marks, their bodies completely drained of blood, D. C. detective Alex Cross's investigation takes him from home to California, and from Vegas to the Carolinas. Patterson is first-rate as he explores the shadowy world of American vampires, fetishists, cults, tattoo parlors, and the prosthetic fang business. As if dealing with ghouls isn't enough, Cross is still tormented by the Mastermind. Daniel Whitner performs Cross, and Kevin O'Rourke plays all the villains. Both are accomplished readers. Whitner has Cross--caring father, serious cop, hopeless romantic--down pat, while O'Rourke does a chilling job of creating the Mastermind and the two beautiful psychopaths who play with tigers. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.