James Patterson: Violets are Blue

BY MICHELE HEWITSON

Patterson returns with Alex Cross, the black detective and all-out nice guy who women readers, apparently, are crazy about.

Cross is a dedicated solo daddy who raises his three kids with the help of Nana Mama who acts as his conscience and Patterson's wise woman/comic character.

Cross is in trouble at home because he keeps missing his son's singing recitals. But what can a cop with a mission to defeat evil do? Especially when there are vampires out there. Bodies are being found, hanging by their feet, with bite marks and the blood drained. . Vampires do exist and they're human. Scary? Well, scarily unbelievable and simply a device for gross murder-scene descriptions.

Patterson is in danger of looking like he has just about sucked the life out of the genre with this silly book.

Hodder Moa Beckett

$34.95