Crass Trick Even for Patterson.
355108
This started out as a typical Alex Cross book: Cross was being watched by an evil genius who was determining how best to make his life miserable. In the meantime, Cross went about his duties as a DC police detective, solving a series of grisly murder of massage parlor hookers.

However, Patterson really outdid himself this time.  He has always been the most commercial of our commercial best seller writers, churning out four to five books a year under his own name and together with various writing proteges.  He had never stooped to the lows seen here.  He built up the suspense in the Cross case to a relative fever pitch, with Cross' entire family in the hands of the evil genius and then ended the book and said, essentially, see you next year.  If you want to know how it ends, if you want to know who lives, buy the next book.  This is somewhat akin to the producers of the Harry Potter and Hunger Games movies breaking the last book into two movies, only worse since there is no prior book from which to seek out the answers.  It's a crass, money grubbing trick unworthy of someone  as successful as Patterson, but then I guess if he was not that successful, the publisher wouldn't have been willing to try it.
4745942
Brinley is a  30 year old teacher who drinks warm milk when she can't sleep.  Raised in a middle-class family, she has been terminally scarred by being labeled as the daughter with common sense. Blah, blah, blah.  Her first move in breaking out of her comfort zone is asking for another hit while playing poker when she already has 16.  Wild and crazy!

Re the guy she is seeing:
"...he left her cold as Chicago in January. He simply didn't get her motor running."  So why invite him to dinner for a third date?  We later learn that no one has ever got her motor running.

Jason was a good attempt at creating an alpha male, but his behavior in the ludicrous plot destroyed his credibility.  Also not appealing was the "I'm not good enough" serenade.  Lather.  Rinse. Repeat.

Imagine a murder investigation where neither of the people interviewing witnesses and suspects are police officers.  Dumb down a Hardy Boys book and you'll be at the right level.  Here's an example of Brinley's involvement in the investigation.
"Evidence. She needed to be more cognizant of that little detail." Bwahahaha!

The former owner of Brinley's house goes by two names which is not explained.  You might find this confusing so you should know that Gail Denton and Mrs. Barnes are the same person.

Don't worry about any spoiler alerts. It couldn't be more obvious who the bad guy is.  The villain has a terrible case of verbal diarrhea and immediately confesses to two murders and two attempted murders when caught.  This is odd,  since he was able to cover up the murder for twenty years before this moment.

The mayor is a big meany who complains about the high cost of fingerprinting.  What???

2.5 stars rounded to 3 because there were no  glaring editing errors.  I really hope I got this book for free.
497200
I have just realized that James Patterson is prostituting his name on a bunch of books and believe me this one is awful. Really awful. I wish it could have a negative star.
It is so badly written that I will not even donate it to the local school library as I normally do.
I hope my post doesn't get pulled for the word I used in the first sentence, but that is the only word I could come up with to describe what Mr Patterson is doing, trading on his old reputation to lure readers in to awful books.
4684482
It seems to me that James Patterson must have enough money so that he doesn't have to add his name to books written by otherwise unknown writers. This one stinks.  The protagonist is big on wit but not much else. No suspense. A lot of stupidity. And god know what the hell he and Owen are looking for and why people want to kill them. So much killing.
1657651
I might even go as far as to say three and a half stars, as this work is a bit better than the previous one, Along Came A Spider.  However, as popular as Patterson may be, he still writes in such a mediocre way which is overcome by the fact that he nails down interesting stories and keeps the action going.

This book, like the first Alex Cross offering, is over the top in concept, much of the stuff here could never happen (or at least should never happen assuming the cops and FBI aren't filled with totally incompetent people).  One of the things that Patterson keeps doing, here and in other works, is that he creates false tension and suspense by having the characters do stuff that is so unbelievably stupid, it's hard not to let it ruin the story.  Think for a moment, you're a woman that's just survived a brutal kidnapping and rape from your home, by an intelligent and resourceful killer, who knows where you live.  Now, after leaving the hospital you insist on going home and staying there, unprotected.  That and the FBI and local police, who know the killer would like to see you dead (after all they did guard you at the hospital-you're a potential witness) don't bother to stake out your home, leaving you at the mercy of the killer.  Yeah, okay, that's believable, I guess, if you're fourteen or something.

One other huge impossibility, and this happens in the prologue, so this is hardly a spoiler or anything, the young killer, future antagonist in our story is hiding in a house watching them, waiting to kill.  He's hiding, get this, in the ducting system.  Apparently Patterson has watched too many stupid heist movies, because, if you'll glance up from the computer as you read this, and look at the air register in the room you're in, you'll notice that it would be physically impossible for a six foot tall man to climb out of it and murder you.  In fact, it would be impossible for a child to crawl out of it.  I realize that in the movies, the bad guys are always crawling around in ducts, but, those are usually in commercial buildings, like banks or something, and, the bad guy isn't seen removing a grill from inside the duct and climbing out into a bedroom.  A bedroom never has a duct with a two foot wide diameter opening, no bedroom would ever need that much air, it isn't just silly, it's beyond belief.

The problem with these little factual problems is that they destroy the credability of the rest of the story.  We the readers have to assume that the information about stuff we know nothing about is accurate, but how can we when there are such major errors in stuff we do know something about?

In any case, the fast paced action and general readability of the work make it an above average thriller, so for those that like this kind of stuff, I still recommend it.
506205
The one star minimum is still to high.

While watching the movie it was obvious that this was not about Patterson's Alex Cross. The movie was completely unrelated to the book and Mr. Patterson should be ashamed that he permitted such a bastardization of his work.
878227
Am I the only person who is so over James Patterson?  NO quality writer can grind out so many books, even with all his collaborators.  I liked a few of his original Alex Cross books, but soon came to realize just how formulaic they were.  Dialogue is sophomoric and the plots are ridiculous.  It's gotten to the point that when I see his name on a book, I just pass it by.  Hasn't he made enough money by now?
4204915
This is the worst James Patterson book I've ever picked up. A real stinker. So bad, I quit reading after chapter five. What a pathetic excuse for a book. Obviously dashed out to raise cash for his next personal expense. Save your money.
2446694
Every character in this is so 'edgy' and 'jaded' they can't stop to realize that they've basically been given a cheat code for life. They spit in the face of anybody who isn't as cool as them and proceed to screw their lives over with alcohol, drugs and really bad life choices. The plot can't hold up under the dead weight of it's own cast and doesn't get anywhere until 300 pages into a 400 page book. By the end the only thing that changes is that our 'hero' realizes his life sucks because he screwed it up, but can't be bothered to make any positive changes.

The author tries to lay some sequel bait in the last 2 pages, but the attempt is as weak as the rest of the story. I don't plan on reading it, and I encourage anyone interested in this one not to be.
4144490
In "The Beach House" we're given Jack Mullen, a 2nd year law student and summer intern with one of New York's most prestigious law firms.  The book opens with Mullen's impulsive and irresponsible younger brother, Peter, working as a parking valet at the annual summer party of a well-known billionaire.  Peter is lured away from his duties to the nearby beach, where he's shot and his death covered up to look like a drowning.  It's up to his older brother, Jack, to find out what really happened that night and make sure that Peter's killer comes to justice.

Sounds innocuous enough, but the way Mullen eventually decides to get justice was not just implausible, it was utterly ridiculous.  It was almost as though Patterson consulted with the local 6th grade class to come up with an ending.  Yeah, it was that hokey.

On a positive note, the presence of De Jonge as a co-author was discernable here.  The writing was actually a bit better than the last few solo Patterson novels - not necessarily in terms of plot, dialog, or character depth, but in terms of some original metaphors and turns of phrases.  They seemed like they were coming from fresh blood, and I'm assuming De Jonge was responsible for that.

Also, although devoting the prologue or first chapter to the events of the murder in a mystery/thriller novel is nothing new, it was a bit of a twist to do this in first person narrative format using the voice of the murder victim himself.

Having read nearly a dozen Patterson novels now, and having reviewed several of them here on Amazon, a disappointing trend has emerged with this author.  With Patterson churning out 5-6 novels a year now, it definitely shows in declining quality.  Nobody can be that prolific without having to skimp on ingredients.  Even the typography in these books is repetitive, along with the annoyingly short 2-3 page chapters.  Bottom line: I can't escape the feeling that I'm being served fiction from a drive through window.  About the only thing missing is a tinny speaker and the words "Do you want fries with that?"

From a larger perspective, Patterson's books reflect an American culture that has totally lost the concept of "moderation" and instead insists on "saturation."  The end result of this "if one is good, 20 is better" mentality is that there ins't much good to say about quality, only quantity.  I'd be much happier with one decent book a year from this author rather than the half a dozen mediocre ones that he feels compelled to crank out.
2501390
I read and love most James Patterson books but this was awful.  Don't bother.  The story line is dumb the characters are dumb.  Big time let down
114431
My least favorite Patterson book ever. I wish I could get back the time I wasted reading it.  Did not like the main characters narration nor any of the other characters for rhat matter.  Unfortunately it appears to be the start of a series continuing this story.  I won't buy it again.
3173420
Although the premise of this novel was a bit hard to swallow, I was able to accept it and give this work a  chance.  What really disappointed me here was not the over-the-top fantasy, the predictable plot, or the  stereotypical conflicts, but Patterson's AWFUL, AWFUL writing.  Of course,  I wasn't expecting  Dostoevsky...but please, there are MANY, MANY, MANY  popular authors who do better than this.  Patterson's characters are so  dull that it's hard to care what happens to them.  Instead of portraying  unique  individuals, he tends to characterize both his heroes and their  adversaries by comparing them to well- known actors (Tom Cruise, Harrison  Ford, Emma Thompson) who dress in brand-name clothing (the  male hero's  nickname is even L.L. Bean....gag!).  Excuse me, but this is really  low-budget style!  Frannie,  the "leading lady" of the novel, is  the most awful character of all.  She is unremittingly rude, insulting,  cold, needlessly confrontational, and humorless.... a totally unlikable  woman. This strangely mannish lady  doesn't think or behave like any woman  I know, but in order to prove that she is, indeed, feminine and  sexy,  Patterson paints her as "midwestern beauty" who looks great in  her clothes, cares for animals, and  who becomes revoltingly gooey when  speaking to children.  In my view, unconvincing character portraits  like  these are a lot more difficult to accept than flying children, and I think  I'll definitely skip Patterson's  other novels.
3597959
This book is bad, just plain bad. It is boring, predictable, and SLOW. Do not waste your money. I could hardly get through it. It does not sound like a James Patterson book whatsoever. He needs to stop putting his name on books written by other authors and tricking his customers.
3369914
The 4th Patterson book I have read and this one is painful to read. I thought that the LA coroners' office was doing the autopsy on Peter's body. To believe that this man was not murdered and it was an accident was to far over the top. The kangaroo trial at the end of the book was so ridiculus that it was laughable. Hopefully, the next Paterson book will be much better than this effort.
4778573
I do not know who Peter DeJonge is, and it seems overly convenient to blame him, but this is not the James Patterson book I'm used to and enjoy.  The characters are flat, the descriptions ridiculous, and the whole work shows a quite frankly annoying pattern of name-dropping.  Oh yes, and I'm from Detroit too- never been shot at.  Way to stereotype, guys.
2420251
Obviously Patterson did not take much time or give much thought to the story line of this book. It will definately go on my list of one of the worst books I have ever read. The character Cross must be some kind of a "super-hero" to endure all the torture that he went thru. WOW SUPERMAN!!!