Cat and Mouse by James Patterson

Cat and Mouse by James Patterson is the fourth book in the Alex Cross series. I listened to the unabridged version on audio book. Like many of the other Alex Cross novels, Patterson alternates between first person and third person. There are also two separate killers. Alex and Samson have to find them both.

Gary Soneji from Along Came a Spider returns in Cat and Mouse. As I mentioned in my post about Along Came a Spider, I listed to an abridged version of Along Came a Spider, so maybe the next comment is a little biased, but I felt like Soneji was a totally different character in Cat and Mouse. I liked Soneji in Along Came a Spider, and even kind of rooted for him. He was much more fatalistic in Cat and Mouse. I felt like Soneji was a flat character this time around.

There is another detective named Thomas Pierce who makes an appearance in Cat and Mouse. There are even some chapters in first person through Thomas' perspective. This jarred me because I was completely used to the pattern of first person being reserved for Alex's voice only in Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, Jack & Jill, and Cross. The break with the pattern took me awhile to get used to.

One thing that I did like about Cat and Mouse, and just about the only thing that helped me rate it as 3 stars rather than 2 1/2 stars was that I got to know Sampson better. Maybe Patterson does it later in the series, but I'd like for a whole book to be in Sampson's voice. I like Sampson as much as I do Alex Cross. I smile every time he calls Alex, "Sugar."

The twists in this book just didn't cut it for me. Without having a spoiler, I'll just say that when Thomas Pierce gets involved beyond the Mr. Pierce murder case investigating with Sampson, Patterson lost me. Had this been the first book I'd plucked out of the series, I wouldn't have read or listened to any more. Luckily, I was already hooked from the other books so far in the series.

Jack and Jill by James Patterson

I listened to an unabridged audio book version of Jack & Jill by James Patterson. Finally, I had the whole story again and wasn't listening to an abridgement. Jack & Jill is another Alex Cross novel, and is the third book in the series. Alex and Sampson try to catch the cold blooded killers, Jack and Jill before they kill the president of the United States. They first kill several other high profile people, and they announce ahead of the fact that they intend to kill the president.

Jack and Jill are given different identities throughout the book. They are known as Jack and Jill to the police and FBI, but the real name of Jill is given early on. Jack's true identity isn't revealed until late in the novel. In some ways, it was a good scheme, and makes for a page turner because the reader wants to know who Jack and Jill really are.

On the other hand, I found myself a little confused throughout the book because there are so many names for some of the same people, including another killer who kills young children in who go to the same school as Alex's son, Damon. Maybe I would have had an easier time keeping all the characters straight if I had been reading Jack and Jill as opposed to listening to it while I drove to and from work, but I'm not one hundred percent sure.

I wasn't as thrilled about Jack and Jill as I had been about Cross, Along Came a Spider, and Kiss the Girls. I think it was because a lot of the killing Jack and Jill did was more a political move rather than something tied to their insanity or their emotions. Killing for hire type of schemes aren't as interesting to me as ones tied to emotions. Alex's emotions carry the book, and for that reason I still enjoyed Jack and Jill, but it won't be a book that I would reread or ever buy. I listened to the library's copy of this one.

I give this one 3 stars. ***

That doesn't mean that I'm totally disenchanted with the Alex Cross series. I went ahead and listened to Cat and Mouse right after finishing this one.

Vision in Blue by Nicole Byrd

Vision in Blue by Nicole Byrd is a regency romance. Byrd writes a few different series but with characters who weave in and out of the series and have different relationships with each other. The novel follows the story of Miss Gemma Smith and her friend Miss Louisa Crookshank. Gemma spends most of the book trying to find her parentage.

Gemma was sent to a foundling home as a young child. After a year in the foundling home, she was taken to a school for gentlewomen and given financial support through a solicitor. When Gemma turns twenty one, she receives a letter from her mother through the solicitor telling her that she has a brother named Lord Gabriel Sinclair in London. Gemma travels to London to seek out her family. Along the way, she meets Louisa, who is engaged to Mr. Lucas Englewood. Gemma stays with Louisa in her rented home in London.

At first, I had a difficult time getting into this book because I'm not accustomed to reading historical romance. The pacing is a lot slower than the books I'm used to reading, and I was bored. I was determined to read the entire novel, though, because I got to hear Nicole Byrd speak at Music City Romance Writers. I also knew several people who had read Byrd's work and loved it.

I continued reading. Once I got halfway through, I was hooked. For a proper and ladylike book, this one through me for a loop in the second half. There was a lot of suspense later on, and I couldn't put the book down until I had finished it. I may end up reading the whole series, but I haven't made up my mind yet. Like a few of my other posts, I've plucked this book out of the middle of a series. It was very much self contained, and I didn't feel like I was missing out by not having read the books that came before it in the series, but I'm now curious about some of the other characters that are the protagonists in the other books earlier and later in the series.

I got to the end knowing who Gemma's mother was, but the novel ended with the question of who her father was. I'm curious now.

I give this book four stars ****

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.