Roses are Red by James Patterson

This is the fourth Patterson book I have read. I read Along came a spider, Kiss the Girls a long time back. I don't remember anything about the books, but I don't think it was very bad. If it was I don't think I would have picked this up. I then read London Bridges and was disappointed.

I kind of liked Alex Cross from his earlier books I read, so wanted to give him another try. I picked mostly because I need to read a book with colour red in the title for Color-coded challenge hosted by Bev @ MyReadersblock. So this book seemed a good fit.

Now the story. There are a series of bank robberies and murders. In some cases the family of the bank employees are held hostage and killed mercilessly. In some cases the bank employees are killed. All this seems to be leading to something bigger. These robberies and murders seem to be masterminded by a psychopath. FBI approaches Alex Cross to help them in their investigation. Will Alex Cross catch the Mastermind? Who is the Mastermind?

The story has two narratives. One is the first person narrative by Alex Cross, the other is a third person narrative giving us the overview of the criminal activities of the mastermind.
Alex Cross is supposed to be in difficult times with his ex-girlfriend, who was kidnapped by a serial killer in one of the earlier books. She is not able to reconcile with her life. Alex's little daughter has a tumour operation. The first person narrative is so matter of fact that it is hard to feel for the guy. Alex goes on with his investigation when his daughter is in hospital. All this turmoil just makes him hesitate a bit before commencing on a love affair with a FBI agent. There are some twists and turns. There is a surprise in the end, still the story is disappointing.

The book has 305 pages and 124 chapters. What's with this one page one chapter business! Wonder what purpose it serves. Every third page is empty because chapters don't start on the left page. If the book was published without these empty pages and a few chapters clubbed together wonder how long it would be.

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