Along Came A Spider - James Patterson

I recently became the proud owner of the whole series of Patterson’s Alex Cross novels. Having never read any of them, I thought I might as well start at the beginning with Along Came A Spider, where we meet Detective/Doctor Cross and get on another of Patterson’s roller coasters. Satisfyingly, the bad guy was really bad, the good guy was pleasantly flawed and the twist was reasonably unexpected. Having read several of his Women’s Murder Club series in single sittings, Along Came A Spider didn’t quite have the same reach-out-of-the-page-and-grab-you-by-the-neck excitement, but it was still pretty good.

Cross’s first case involves a kidnapping of two celebrity children, a psychopath who allegedly suffers from a split-personality, and several gruesome murders along the way. I think where Patterson succeeds is that he invites his readers to truly empathise with Alex Cross all the way through - you share his doubts, his tenacity, his frustration and his hurt. I am always so tempted to read the last page in a crime novel (which invariably spoils the real surprise but at least it helps me get to sleep at a more reasonable hour). This one I didn’t, and I am quite glad of it. The twist was good, but not brilliant and if I had known what it was half way through it would probably have been a little harder to finish.

Although, as evidence of how much I enjoyed it, after closing the cover I immediately picked up Kiss The Girls and read for another hour or two…

Must get on to the required reading for my reading group…and the pile of books I need to get through for work…but I really want to know what happens next…

Rating: 7/10
ISBN: Book club copy - no ISBN printed
Publisher: BCA
Year: 1993
Date Finished: 29 January 2008

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Mortal Wounds by Max Allan Collins

Mortal Wounds is actually three books in one - Double Dealer, Sin City and Cold Burn. All based on the original CSI TV Series set in Las Vegas, it was a light and easy read.

The only issue I have with TV tie-ins is that the characters can be a little wooden. Maybe that’s because we are used to seeing all of their facial expressions on the screen or hearing the intonation in their speech. Unfortunately, I found that the author skimped on character development because essentially the characters had already been developed on TV. Although each book was a good 220 pages, it still felt a little bit like the one hour episode (minus the adverts, thank goodness). The murders and forensics were crammed in while the characters were almost incidental. There was a brief mention of things outside of the direct case - Catherine’s past as a dancer, a possible love interest between Sara and Grissom - but just like the series, such details were quickly passed over.

Each book follows two murders which are not always related. As with the TV series, the team splits to investigate the murders, both coming to conclusions at about the same time. It did feel like the stories had been shoehorned into the parameters of the franchise, despite the relative freedom that one can gain with the written medium, but perhaps that is what the author had been required to do in order to give it the CSI name?

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. I hadn’t come across any of the stories before which made it even better. It was nice to have a bit of unchallenging escapism to ease up the stress of life, business and the cold London winter.

Rating: 6/10
ISBN: 978-1-84739-187-2
Publisher: Pocket Books
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 22 January 2008

The Nuremberg Interviews - Leon Goldensohn

The Nuremberg Interviews were conducted by Leon Goldensohn during the trials of 1945-1946. Gathered together and finally published by his brother, Eli, and carefully edited and annotated by Robert Gellately, this primary historical source makes for chilling reading. Goldensohn, an American Jewish psychiatrist, was present at the prison and conducted interviews with many of the defendants and witnesses of Nuremberg. What results is a story of banality, in some cases inhumanity, weakness, bombast and fear. Through questioning, the personalities of the leading players came out, sometimes to terrifying and devastating effect.

I did not know all of the defendants or witnesses, but those that I did know - Goering, Ribbentrop, Jodl, Keitel and Franck among others, were suddenly given colour. To hear their own words was chilling. Most begged innocence. Most exonerated themselves of any responsibility for the mass murder and horror of the Second World War. Most chose to blame those players who were dead - Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler. And most were clearly lying and delusional.

The most frightening of all was the interview with Rudolf Hoess - Kommandant of Auschwitz prison. His account of his responsibilities and the cool detatchment with which he spoke of them made me feel physically ill. I had to put the book down halfway through the chapter because I couldn’t stand reading further. To think that humans could be so detached in the face of suffering and murder, as attested to by his own words, was almost impossible.

This is a valuable historical source. It makes for incredibly compelling reading - if nothing else to find out how utterly ordinary most of the people involved with Hitler actually were. They didn’t appear to be monsters. They didn’t appear large as life. They just seemed like very ordinary (or often weak, snivelling or pathetic) men who for some reason, ceased to think like civilised human beings when it came to genocide.

A must for any historian of World War II. But be prepared.

Rating: 8/10
ISBN: 1-8459-5014-3
Publisher: Pimlico
Year: 2006
Date Finished: 29 December 2007

The Woman In the Fifth - Douglas Kennedy

If you’ve ever seen From Dusk Till Dawn and loved it, then you are going to love this book. Of course, it will probably only have that fantastic effect of complete surprise the first time you read it, but once you have finished you will keep thinking back and smiling. And no, before you ask, it has nothing to do with vampires…

Harry Ricks has fallen on some difficult times. Actually, difficult is probably an understatement - he has experiencd so much bad luck and been the victim of some seriously conniving and narrow-minded people that it is little wonder he runs away to Paris to try and escape from the misery of a life back in the US. Unfortunately for the story, Harry was a bit ‘wet’ for my liking. Perhaps it is more an indication of my own personality, but if he had been treated so unspeakably badly by his wife and her clandestine boyfriend, why on earth would he still try to be nice to her?! Paris, however, introduces a new life - with a job as night watchman for a mysterious business, a life in a less than salubrious part of the city, and a strange Hungarian beauty who comes into his life but keeps him at rigid arms length.

However, soon, Harry discovers that bad things start to happen to the people who have wronged him. And as the pace of the story picks up, it starts to become evident as to where that bad is emanating from. But the perpetrator is not all that they seem and Harry is finally caught in a situation which solves all of his subconscious desires but finds him more trapped than ever.

I really enjoyed the twist to this story. It is the first Douglas Kennedy book I have read and I thought his storyline was great. I have read a lot of pretty negative reviews about this book, but it appears that that is because it is a departure from Kennedy’s normal style. Being my first, I had nothing to compare it to and no preconceptions or expectations. Of that I am glad, because I really gained a lot out of this book. I would have been sad to have missed that pleasure because I had expected it to be like something else.

Rating: 7/10
ISBN: 978-0-09-179959-5
Publisher: Hutchinson
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 24 December 2007