Violets Are Blue (audiobook) by James Patterson


Sigh...

Published in 2005 by Hachette Audio.
Read by Daniel Whitner and Kevin O'Rourke
Duration: 8 hours, 10 minutes
Unabridged.
I used to think the Alex Cross series had a lot going for it. I used to be very impressed with it when I first discovered it about 10 years ago. I don't know if my tastes have improved or if the series has declined but this is definitely not as good as I remember them being (and frankly, I'm scared about going back and re-reading one of them and ruining my only strong memories of the series).

There are two concurrent plots in Violets are Blue. One involves an investigation into the "Goth" underworld and vampires (are they real or are they just people who are REALLY into vampires and like to act like they are real vampires..?)

The other story involves the recurring criminal mastermind character conveniently named "the Mastermind". I hate to write spoilers so I won't re-hash the entire plot here, but let me say that Patterson probably owes Michael Connelly an apology. Michael Connelly basically wrote the same thing several years earlier in the thriller The Poet (and he did it better, too!)

I keep thinking I'm going to really like a Patterson book again, but this is about the 5th in a row that I have not liked. I'm tired of searching for the needle in the proverbial Patterson haystack. The stories just lack the depth and the realism that they used to have.

 The audiobook version is read by two narrators - Daniel Whitner and Kevin O'Rourke. One reads the part of Alex Cross, one covers nearly everything else. It lasts a little more than 8 hours.

 I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

 This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Violets Are Blue (Alex Cross Novels)

Reviewed on April 13, 2008.

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