Cat and Mouse – James Patterson – 500
In the past year, although I haven’t been keeping the blog, I have certainly been reading. Just from my written scribblings, I would estimate I have probably read around 70 books since I last wrote here. I have been going back and trying to record as many as I can remember on Librarything, but I think I accept that there is no way that I can remember them all. Indeed, a couple of times I have started reading a book and thought “mmm, I’m pretty sure I’ve already read this…” over the past year.
Anyway, I want to read 500 books in the next 5 years. Why? Well, why not? To be honest, it is because I am currently in that unpleasant (to me) situation where, as we await the birth of a baby, I am being told left, right and centre by everyone from close friends to complete strangers that I am never going to get time to read again when the baby is born, and me being stubborn (as well as getting pretty annoyed at the smug insistence that these people know me and my life better than I know myself!) I thought – well, let’s just wait and see shall we? So, I thought I would record my reading publicly again just so I can point all of those unwanted advice givers somewhere as they prepare themselves to announce “I told you so”…
So, baby is due in 9 weeks, and I set my start date from yesterday, 14th September 2011 for my long term reading project. So, here’s the first book…
James Patterson…well, it is an easy place to start I guess. His books aren’t exactly difficult to get through. One of the reason I am reading them is that my book collection (now in excess of 1300 books) doesn’t fit very well in our house so I am making some decisions about which books I can donate. Patterson’s entire oeuvre falls into that category. However, before I donate anything, I will read them so I can churn through them pretty quickly and pass them on – leaving room for something better!
I have been working through the Alex Cross series over the years – this is number 4. Frankly, it brought no surprises. Cross faces his old nemesis, Gary Soneji, while at the same time an even more sinister, macabre killer – Mr Smith – is also on the loose. The first part of the book is devoted to the chase for Soneji as he embarks on his murderous swansong. Then we swing around to the case of Mr Smith, meeting another FBI agent, Thomas Pierce, along the way.
As usual there is an Alex Cross love interest. Unfortunately, Patterson feels the need to add steamy bedroom scenes into the books which simply don’t work for me. If I wanted to read about bedroom gymnastics, I would pick up a romance, not a gruesome crime fiction. I also get a little bit tired of the saccharine sweetness of Cross’s children who seem to never, ever behave badly, have bad days or annoy their parent or caregiver. Goodness, if children were all like the angelic Jannie and the perfect Damon, then perhaps having them wouldn’t be such a challenge! Finally, the identity of Mr Smith, set out as a clever twist, really didn’t hold together for me. It was a good idea, but it was poorly executed and came off as contrived. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief quite enough to feel satisfied with it.
So, no, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I have been enjoying, say, Henning Menkel (I launched into a Wallander the minute I had finished the last page of Cat and Mouse), but then I didn’t expect to. Patterson’s books are the CSI Miami of the book world – pretty, plot driven, but ultimately empty and when its over in half an hour (or a few hours in the case of the book) you are left with a feeling that you haven’t really been fed much substance.
Rating: 3/10
Date Finished: 14 September 2011
Copyright: 1997
Pages: 342
Verdict: Read once then move on…
