Cat & Mouse

November 3, 1997
Always a generous author (lots of plot and intrigue) if not a stylish one, Patterson now gives his fans two thrillers, loosely linked, for the price of one. The first features convicted mass murderer and prison escapee Gary Soneji, returning from Along Came a Spider. The second focuses on Mr. Smith, a fiend who performs live autopsies on his victims and who boasts to one, "Gary Soneji a pussycat compared to me." Both benefit from the humane presence of Patterson's popular black Washington, D.C., detective/psychologist Alex Cross, who sweetly romances a school principal when not hunting down the villains. There's action aplenty here, beginning with Soneji's rampage in the famed train station, intercutting with Mr. Smith's diabolical handiwork and peaking with a nighttime assault on Alex and a cruel conclusion. There's much mystery, too, as Patterson--writing in the third-person as well as through two first-person voices--lays down the games suggested in the title. The many puzzles--who is Mr. Smith? why is Soneji possessed of bloodlust? etc.--and their solutions are on a Hardy Boys level, and Patterson's prose is equally rudimentary, littering the narrative with as many exclamation points as dead bodies: "Rush hour! Eight-twenty A.M. Jesus God Almighty, no! A madman was on the loose inside Union Station"). With his trademark short chapters, cleanly delineated characters and flair for cheesy melodrama, however, Patterson again delivers the sort of undemanding, swiftly paced fare that has made him a champ of the charts. 500,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection; author tour. (Nov.) FYI: Paramount Pictures promises a "multimillion"-dollar campaign to promote the release of Kiss the Girls in September. Warner will publish the mass market edition of Jack & Jill in October.

October 1, 1997
Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross series will be delighted with this latest installment. Reappearing is Christine Johnson, seen in an earlier Cross novel, Jack & Jill (LJ 8/96) and the principal at his children's school, and Cross has fallen in love with her. Gary Soneji, the creepy kidnapper and murderer from another Cross book, has broken out of jail and embarked on a new killing spree, again taunting Cross that he can't stop him. And one of his intended targets is Cross and his family. If that isn't enough, there's a new serial killer whose murders are so inhuman that the news media are suggesting that he's an alien from another planet. All story lines connect in this thriller, whose driving plot will distract you from thinking about its implausibilities and keep you turning pages to the last, when you'll find yourself impatiently awaiting the arrival of the next Cross novel. Recommended for public libraries.--Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.

September 1, 1997
Patterson's name on the cover virtually guarantees a spot on the best-seller lists, and there's little doubt that his latest will find a home there as well. Take-no-prisoners suspense reigns supreme as Patterson's popular hero, investigator Alex Cross, returns in a genuinely scary adventure. Alex's old nemesis, psychopath Gary Soneji, is dead set on killing Alex in the ugliest, most terrifying way he can devise, but first, he's decided to play a game of cat and mouse with his intended victim. In Europe, a sadistic torturer dubbed "Mr. Smith" is on the loose, and if Soneji is the king of cat and mouse, Mr. Smith is the grand high emperor. Elusive and terrifying, he performs autopsies on his living victims. FBI Agent Thomas Pierce has been assigned to the Smith case, but he's come back to America especially to help Alex track down Soneji. Meanwhile, widower Alex has met a new lady who has his heart singing. His kids adore her, and he's almost persuaded himself that he could be in love when Soneji intervenes and turns Alex's life upside down. But Alex has a few tricks up his own sleeve and can match wits with even the cleverest serial killer--if he can just figure out "which" serial killer. Suspense, terror, in-your-face action, strange (and sometimes confusing) plot twists, and a darkly explosive ending will have readers lining up, eager to claim their copy of Patterson's latest sure-to-be-a-hit page-turner. It won't hurt that Paramount Pictures will release a film version of Patterson's "Kiss the Girls" in September. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)