Wednesday, January 2, 2013

"SYPHAX ON BOOKS" BOOK REVIEW! FIRST UP: "CROSS," BY JAMES PATERSON!

“The Butcher parked a block or so up to Fourth Street, then he got out of the car and walked quickly back towards the cozy house where the cop had the bottom floor flat. Getting the correct address had been easy enough for him. The Mafia had ties with the Bureau, after all. He looped around the side trying not to be seen, but no concern, if he was. People in this neighborhood didn’t talk about what they saw.”

                      Except from Jame's Paterson's Noverl: "Cross."

And just that easy, we are drawn into Alex Cross's world, but this is the mastery of writer James Patterson, the ablility to drive us right into the heart beat of the text. Being hooked into his deadly, literary webbing of murder , suspense and mystery, in all honesty, is common practice for this author, who may very well be considered the uncontested master of the suspense thriller; and his latest book, “Cross,” is no exception!

We begin our story with the main character, Alex Cross (a recurring character in the Alex Cross Series, whose first appearance dates back as far as Patterson’s earlier work, “Kiss of the Spider Women”). Cross is a top notch detective, who, after growing tired of his job, decides to retire. On the surface, all seems normal and the transition seems as slick as a silver bullet. That is until a serial murder case comes to his front door, throwing him back into the heart of a murder investigation, compliments of a sadistic serial killer, initially known only to local authorities as, “The Butcher!”

Now, this does seem much like many other suspense thrillers, but here, like most of James Paterson’s novels before it, what seems to be on the surface is only a sample of what is really waiting for the reader.

Action packed, this book holds no punches! It’s phenomenal character development and unrelenting pacing is amazing! We are captivated, virtually from the first sentence by a clear character arch done with such consistency and emotional drive (something all but unheard of in much other suspense, thriller novels) that we are left barely catching out breath! We are let in on the characters traits from the jump, making them all too real! In fact, the characters are so real that their pains automatically become our pains! Their struggles become our struggles and their faults our inadequacies. It is through the Protagonist initially, rather than the antagonist that we see who Cross really is underneath the skin and, hence, are placed (fugitively speaking)”under the gun.”

In hind sight, we know the murder because we know Cross, and vice versa, but isn’t that the fun of it?

Simply put, James Patterson is quite arguably the best suspense writer of all time, and certainly of present day, making his new novel, “Cross,” another crowning achievement in his vast array of best sellers. The question is, has the movie measured up to the book and can Mr. Tyler Perry capture Cross’s character development as written on the page? It’s a tall order! You decide!

Either way, we always have the novel too plug us in!