Violets Are Blue: 7 (Alex Cross Novels) - Hardcover

Patterson, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316686565 ISBN 13: 9780316686563

Publisher: Little Brown and Company, 2001

Synopsis

Detective Alex Cross must confront his most terrifying nemesis ever-and his own deepest fears-in this electrifying new thriller from the master of suspense, James Patterson.Alex Cross has never believed in vampires. But when two joggers are found slain in a manner that suggests a macabre ritual, he has to reconsider. Someone believes in vampires enough to have committed a series of bizarre murders that appear to be the work of one. Local police are horrified, and even the FBI is baffled.Cross takes on the case and plunges into a netherworld of secret clubs and role-players, a world full of poseurs and playactors-and someone demented enough to have crossed the line from dark ritual to real blood. At the same time, a lethal super-criminal from Cross's past known as the Mastermind is stalking him, taunting him, and threatening everything he holds dear. Cross has never been closer to defeat, or in greater danger. In a shocking conclusion, Alex Cross must survive a deadly confrontation-only to discover at last the awful secret of the Mastermind.

About this title

Review:

Fans of James Patterson's resourceful black cop Alex Cross will be relieved to find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and (more importantly) it's one of the best Alex Cross thrillers in many a moon.

The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is back and fixing to give Alex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in a particularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have been viciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blood drained from their bodies. And when further brutal deaths follow in California and on the east coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility of modern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the many sinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by Jamilla Hughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds that he has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop further bloodletting.

Readers of Patterson expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of them), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personal life, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resist reading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thriller-reader's medal. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

'James Patterson does everything but stick our finger in a light socket' -- New York Times

'Ticks like a time-bomb - full of threat and terror' -- Los Angeles Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0316686565
• ISBN 13: 9780316686563
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432