Mary Mary
James Patterson
(Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
2005 Little, Brown & Co.
ISBN: 031615976X

[Editor: notice the comma after the first “Mary” has been deleted because Internet's search engines will separate the title.]

In Hollywood, Alex Cross hunts for his worst serial killer.

Sr. Associate Reviewer Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

The latest in the Alex Cross series has everything, rather more than everything, ardent fans seek in a Patterson work. Page-turning action & nail-biting suspense is here aplenty.

Having reviewed about ten Patterson works for this site, I am facing a hard time coming up with new words to describe my appreciation for his latest, Mary, Mary. However, I believe that the title might cause confusion for at least some readers -- back in 1992 author Ed McBain (pseudonym for Evan Hunter) wrote a punching legal thriller under the same title.

Alex Cross is on vacation with his family at Disneyland, when the gruesome murder of a famous actress jolts him back into action. Soon he realizes he is up against an enigmatic & shrewd killer, who calls herself Mary Smith. She has a peculiar style of emailing journalists details about the murders she commits in a really gore style -- she warns that the murder of this actress is only the start. Who is Mary Smith? What is her agenda? & when both the FBI & the LAPD are at their wits end, it's up to Alex Cross to come up with the solution.

Though critics have snubbed Patterson saying that his Alex Cross stories are “formulaic” -- the very fact that these thrillers always end up being huge successes surely means that the appetite of the reading public, (including myself) is not yet satiated.

The Alex Cross thrillers have been turned to hugely successful movies (Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls) starring Morgan Freeman in the title role. & production is underway on the new movie, if Entertainment News has it right. Looking forward to the next Alex Cross work & of course, the movie.

Mary, Mary is highly, highly recommended.

More from James Patterson:

Maximum Ride
Lifeguard
4th of July
Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas
Sam's Letters To Jennifer
Hide & Seek
The Beach House
Four Blind Mice
The Big Bad Wolf & many more!
(10/23/05)

Narayan
2005©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org