Mystery/Crime Fiction

» shelfmonkey - Am I the only one who can't stand him?

Patterson's writing is lazy, sloppy, and worst of all, boring. I've read three Alex Cross novels, trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, but I just don't get it. The plots are unrealistic, but that's not a slam against it. However, Patterson never gets to a point where I can suspend my disbelief.

I haven't been this confused since people recommended The Da Vinci Code.

-- posted by shelfmonkey

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» Sandy Mitchell - Am I the only one who can't stand him?

In response to Am I the only one who can't stand him? posted by shelfmonkey:

Patterson says on his website that he has cultivated his short chapters "mystery light" style on purpose so that readers who might shun a book with longer chapters will pick up his novels.

That this strategy has been so successful for him does not say a lot for the American reading public.

I agree. What's next: picture book mysteries?

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» shelfmonkey - Am I the only one who can't stand him?

In response to Am I the only one who can't stand him? posted by sandymae2000:

Exactly, but it's not just the short chapters (although Patterson and Brown have not exactly endeared me to that particular trick). Yes, these are works designed for ADD sufferers, but there's more to it. There's no tension, no imagination. Patterson (at least in the Cross novels I've read), switches back and forth from first-person Cross narrative to third-person psycho-killer perspective. So, we get no sense of intrigue. If it's Cross we're suppposed to care about, then let's follow him. Otherwise, it's lazy. One of the books I read (can't remember which) went on and on about how smart Cross was, and yet he didn't figure out anything, it all happened, and he just lucked into a solution. There was no mystery, no sleuthing, no triumph of investigative techniques.

And, Cross is BORING. Man, when we've got Ed McBain, Ian Rankin, John Harvey, Elmore Leonard, and PD James, why would we ever want to read Patterson?

-- posted by shelfmonkey

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