kld718's Full Review: James Patterson - Roses Are Red
I have to say that I am such a fan of James Patterson that I read this book and then went out and bought all of the one's in the Alex Cross series. I don't know what it is about Patterson, but his stories just intrigue me.
**This review reveals minor plot details.
”To perfect crimes,” the Mastermind intoned over the grotesquely sprawled bodies.
Brianne Parker carefully executed her mission, to rob the Citibank in Silver Springs, Maryland. Meanwhile, her partner Errol is at the bank manager’s home, intending to use her family as hostages.
And that’s just the first...the first of many bank robberies that occur in and around Washington, where the robbers’ seem to have a purpose. Other than gaining wealth that is. The instructions given to the robbers’ by the mysterious ”Mastermind” must be followed exactly how they are given, or the employee’s and their families are threatened. Sometimes not just threatened, but also coldly murdered. And sometimes they're not.
The real motives are not given. And the real plans are not exactly followed as instructed. Because somehow, even when the robberies’ go off without a hitch, someone ends up dead. Why keep the robberies’ on such a tight schedule? What is the point in this? Power? Self-satisfaction? Or is it just someone’s psychological need to be in control?
Detective Alex Cross is having a christening party for his newborn son when Kyle Craig, his FBI friend, shows up. Christine, Alex’s girlfriend and mother of the new baby, pleads with him to do no business that night. But Alex cannot help himself. When he comes out of the meeting with Kyle, he finds Christine and the baby gone.
Christine makes it clear to Alex that she doesn’t want to see him anymore. She believes that his job will endanger her and the baby. It seems that Christine was the target in an earlier abduction, by Gregory Schafer, who was the suspect in a case Alex had been working on. Christine is afraid that the same thing to occur again and endanger the baby. She decides to go away where Schafer cannot find her. She leave's the baby with Alex and his mother, Nana.
Alex and Sampson manage to locate Errol and Brianne, but they are just a wee bit too late. The Parkers’ lie dead, poisoned in their own home. Brianne having been violated after her death. Could the “Mastermind” have something to do with this? What kind of sick individual are they dealing with?
The second robbery goes down in Virginia. And then another in Washington. What is the Mastermind trying to prove? Is it the fact that he can outsmart everyone that keeps him coming back for more?
Meanwhile, Patterson gives us a little look-see in the Mastermind’s brain, without revealing who he is. We learn that he sees Detective Cross as an opponent that he is determined to beat at any cost. Someone that he is jealous of, in spite of the fact that he considers himself more intelligent.
The second bank robbery crew is all extinguished and the Mastermind interviews for new candidates. Except these candidates are smarter and more wary than the previous. Two of the crew stay outside of the meeting place, waiting for the Mastermind to leave. They chase him down onto the grounds of the Hazelwood Mental Institution. Is the Mastermind a resident? Or is this a way to throw everyone off guard?
The Mastermind goes to work again. A tour bus full of the family members of the Metro Hartford Insurance Company’s corporate employees is hijacked. A hefty ransom is demanded from the company. The Mastermind wins again, and leave’s the hostages alive this time. Was it planned this way? Or did the "perfect plan" go wrong somewhere?
A lead comes in and five New York City police detectives are picked up. The leader, MacDougal gives up the Mastermind, for a price. MacDougal spills the beans about where they tracked the Mastermind to, and FBI agents are immediately sent out to the institution. Alex and Sampson enter the facility on the pretense of being employees.
Alex decides to try some surveillance on one of the patients at the institution. Alex and FBI Agent Betsey Cavalier find an accomplice of the Mastermind and she spills her guts. A suspect is tracked down, with disastrous results.
A few weeks later, Alex receives a call from Kyle with the news that Betsey had been murdered. But how can this be, when they've already found the Mastermind?
~*~ My Thoughts ~*~
My thoughts? My thoughts? I didn’t have any thoughts for a few days after reading Roses Are Red. How can anyone? Patterson just grabs you by the throat, and doesn’t even care if your not holding on. It’s no wonder he’s a number one best-selling author of a variety of books.
Roses Are Red left me guessing...not about who the murder is because the person is revealed at the end of the book, but as to what his motives were. Because those motives are not revealed. By the end of the book, we still don’t learn why these crimes were committed and to what purpose they served (besides satisfying someone’s carnal need). Because then what good would a sequel be?
Well, it is just great for Patterson to leave us in suspense, he knows what’s going to happen next. This really bothered me because I really like to know what’s going on, and I didn’t know...and I still don’t. (Well...I do now because I’ve read the next book.)
Some of the incidents in the book may seem baffling to you. They may leave you wondering about human nature, the psychological part of human nature, and what this all means to society. Because these kinds of things don’t just happen in books anymore, they are real. The “dark side” of human nature is revealed again and again in this world, much to the horror of other’s.
This book sure caught me by surprise and nothing much has that affect on me anymore with what I’ve experienced in my field, even at a young age. Let's just say that I would love to do a little behavioral analysis on James Patterson!
One thing that I did not like about this book was the short chapters. Some of the chapters were one to two pages long, and other's were four to six pages long. This provides for a very annoying read. I didn't like reading one page and then having the chapter be done with. Another bad thing was that the Alex Cross character was made to be super-human. I mean, come on...everyone has to sleep once in awhile!
Oh well...it was really grueling waiting for the sequel to come out. If you haven’t read this book yet, you have it a little easier. I suggest you buy the second book Violets Are Blue along with Roses Are Red. That way, when you’re done with the first, you can automatically pick up the second. Instead of waiting months like I did!
The Alex Cross Series:
Along Came a Spider
Kiss The Girls
Jack & Jill
Cat & Mouse
Pop Goes The Weasel Roses Are Red Violets Are Blue
Four Blind Mice
The Big Bad Wolf
~ Happy Reading!
Kim
ISBN: 0-316-69325-1
Format Read: Hardcover
Pages: 305
Price: 16.97
From the Publisher: From James Patterson, the #1 bestselling author of Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, comes a dazzlingly frightening new thri...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Detective Alex Cross meets his match in this heart-pounding national bestseller, when he pursues the Mastermind, the most brilliant killer he s ever c...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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