The Alex Cross Adventure

         When it comes to suspense thrillers  there are a lot of names that come up but no one had the appeal that James Patterson had. For a while he was a machine pumping out books that were compelling pieces of fiction. At the time, no one wrote like Patterson which allowed him to carve out his own place on the best seller lists. What I loved the most was just how easy the books were to read, and on top of that Patterson had a knack for keeping the plots simple and easy to follow. To make the experience even more interesting  there were two viewpoints that allowed you to see the story from a variety of angles.You had Cross' narrative and then throughout the story there were others that were far darker and got  you into the mind of the villain. For me, it was the style I gravitated toward. Sure, Patterson kept the chapter short and he didn't use overdrawn flowery language, but that was the point. The Cross novels  were designed to be read  by everyone, and they were. When I read Kiss  The Girls I was hooked and kept up on the series but there were so many books I  just lost interest. Between him and Patricia Cornwell  I was running  out of time to read the damn things. My first steps toward suspense thrillers only happened because of him and Cornwell.Would I have moved away from a  straight horror diet if my ex-wife hadn't gotten me into Patterson? Maybe, but it would have taken me a bit longer. Patterson books are fluff, you read these books on vacation, or when you just want something exciting to  read. Patterson could write some decent  fiction but then  as he grew older, he stopped writing  his own stuff and I grew to find his books lacking . Maybe it was the people he had writng this stuff.  He gives the author an outline and its their job to do the writing.

        Of course over the years I've checked in on  Patterson and the guy is good, real good. His books have always had the same formula while being decent, even simplistic in their delivery. The guy is a writing factory so of course not every book is going to be good. You're bound to have a few that aren't on the same level as others. Part of problem is what he calls co-writers, but we all know what they really do. On the cover they look like Patterson books, but they aren't and it's unfortunate given the success he's had over the years. Before Alex Cross, I had never heard of Patterson but those books aren't very good anyway. I  tried to read them, but they just lacked the same style and overall addictive qualities of his later work. Could this guy even write something other than Alex Cross books? the answer was a resounding yes and as a fan I went along willingly until it just got too much. When you look at  the guys bibliography it's overwhelming. There's other series. the standalones and it's exhausting.  I quickly lost interest. As a writer, it's  dissapointing to see that Patterson doesn't even write his own books anymore but I get it. He's older now and it's time to start looking for a way out. Still, if you're not going to write your own books why the hell would you allow your work to be tainted by outside writers? Some of them aren't even that good. They do more harm than good and show readers that you're simply here for the paycheck. Sure, the outline may look good, but what about the story, what happens when the writer can't tap into your style or voice? that's become problem with a lot of Patterson's later work. It  just doesn't feel like a Patterson novel.

        Here we are far removed from the Alex Cross series. I haven't  read a Cross novel in years so I  got this great, or terrible idea. I decided to read the entire Alex Cross series. Yeah, from the beginning up until the last book. Am I crazy? You could say that, but I thought it would be interesting just to see how well the series progresses. There's bound to be some clunkers among the classics right? What I failed to notice was just how many books were involved. If I had done my research a little I would have seen that there are twenty-eight Alex Cross  novels. Twenty-eight! Reading them all in order is going to drive me insane but I feel the time is right. I'm looking at a lot of different things here and not just how good they are. How well have they stood up over the years, were they really as good as  I remember? When I first began reading these I was never a big fan of mysteries nor did I ever think of these books as such. To me, they were suspense thrillers that were done perfectly. Hell, he was a huge influence on me as a writer. My books Legacy and Legacy 2 exist because of this guy. When I wanted to get inside my killers head I  immediately thought of Patterson's novels. He was  able to get inside the head of his villians so perfectly you felt as if you knew them. I wanted to achieve that  in my own writing and I think I did.

         What I plan on doing is marking  my progress through reviews and a variety of different blogs tracking my progress. I don't know if this has even been done before and if it's fun, why not do the Kay Scarpetta series? I devoured Patricia Cornwell books with the same speed I devoured Patterson. There's so many places to go after this, but first, I have to get through the Cross novels. I thought there were only twenty-four, but no, I missed some somehow. Well, let's go ahead and get this over with and begin at the beginning. The first book Along Came A Spider. This is where we first meet Alex Cross. It's  the only place the journey can begin. Until next time,  wish me luck.