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A combination of circumstance and circumstances put me in New Orleans on Halloween night in 1999. It was a memorable night for many reasons --- the cross-dresser blocking traffic at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann's will never fade from memory --- but one memory came rushing back, over and over, as I read VIOLETS ARE BLUE by James Patterson. It is the memory of two men walking down Bourbon Street, both blond, apparently twins, tall and buff, dressed only in bib overalls, striding through the crowds like bronzed gods slumming. The most striking thing about these gentlemen were their eyes: blue, hollow, and without palpable emotion. It was interesting to watch the reaction of those who encountered them. People of both sexes didn't make way for this couple; they actually appeared to recoil from them. My reaction, then and now, was "Those guys are vampires."
A good portion of the latter half of VIOLETS ARE BLUE takes place in New Orleans, and most of it involves a hunt for a serial killer --- or killers --- who rend their victims during ritual murder and drink their blood. We learn fairly early on who the killers are. They are brothers named William and Michael Alexander and they stride through Patterson's world just as confidently and with the same aloofness as did the gentlemen I saw in New Orleans that night. Alex Cross is brought into the investigation by Kyle Craig, the FBI agent revealed in last year's ROSES ARE RED as the brilliant, maniacal Mastermind. Cross, accordingly, must pursue the Alexanders while dealing with the anonymous taunts and threats of The Mastermind --- who knows his every move and location --- and attempting to fulfill the role of single parent that fate has thrust upon him. Patterson, as he has done before, adroitly presents the various professional and personal roles that Cross plays among the people in his life and how those roles overlap, often inconveniently.
Patterson's writing style lends itself to his descriptions. He tends to write in short paragraphs encased in short chapters of two to four pages each. He does not get bogged down in descriptive prose, by any means. He gives the reader...enough. Patterson is not in love with the sound of his literary voice, and as a result, he keeps his story moving along at breakneck speed. And as his longtime readers know, Patterson's stories are worth consuming as quickly as possible.
Patterson has been branching out from his bread-and-butter Alex Cross novels of late, with his "number series" (1ST TO DIE and the forthcoming 2ND CHANCE) and a foray into romance novels (SUZANNE'S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS). The ending of VIOLETS ARE BLUE may portend an ending for the Alex Cross series --- at least as we have come to know it --- or, perhaps, he is just getting started. With Patterson, you never know what to expect, but it's always fun to find out.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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