Along Came a Spider by James Patterson

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson is the first book in the Alex Cross series. If you've been reading my blogs posts so far, you know that I'm blogging a little out of order with these books. I listened to the audio book version of of Along Came a Spider. Like Kiss the Girls, I didn't realize this was an abridged version until after it came in the mail. *sigh* My review is based on the cassettes, not of the complete, unabridged version. I wished I had read the book instead.

Along Came a Spider came on four audio cassettes. Although the abridgement was better than Kiss the Girls, I think I missed about half the plot. There were a few times when I wondered how Alex Cross, Sampson, and the villain Gary Soneji. Gary Soneji kidnaps two children, and Alex works on another case from the projects at the same time. I identified with the villain in Along Came a Spider, and there was a piece of me that wanted Gary Soneji to succeed. Patterson does a good job of writing the bad guy to be likable in certain respects. I can't pinpoint what I liked a bout Gary Soneji in particular, but I rooted for him to get away.

Along Came a Spider contained a few plot twists that I didn't like. I'm not at all for spoilers, so I won't mention what turned me off exactly. I'll only say that in this abridged version there were things I didn't see coming that didn't have any warning at all. Given how Patterson tells his story in the books versus the abridgements, I think those plot twists wouldn't have come out of thin air quite to the extent that they did in the abridgement.

I give this one three stars *** based on the abridgement. I still recommend it, and I'm going to rent the movie.