Review: Along Came a Spider

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the book launched that James Patterson and his best-selling Alex Cross series. As the mystery-detective is one of my favorite genres, I figured it was about time I read a Patterson novel. While I enjoyed the book overall, it is a bit of a mess. There are a lot of plot holes and confusing aspects of the characters. The dialog felt stilted at times and there were odd jumps in the story. The mystery itself was interesting – though not completely unpredictable, there were enough red herrings and twists to keep you on your toes. The sex scenes were a bit much and superfluous.

Frankly, as popular as Patterson is, I was a bit surprised the writing was not better (Connelly, for example, is far better). But this is a debut novel, so I suspect (hope) that some of this gets cleaned up as Patterson develops his style.

Cross seems like an interesting character, especially for the mystery genre. His psychologist background gives his perspective a different twist than your standard cop or private eye protagonist. I am curious to see how Patterson develops him more. That said, I’m not jumping into the next book anytime soon, but it is a series I will return to.




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