"Violets Are Blue" by James Patterson (Thriller, Spoiler Warning)

It's probably unfortunate that I'm reading this novels out of order, because in this case the story makes references to things that happened in the previous novel, "Roses Are Red." But, it's not too bad, this novel stands on its own well enough.

This is another one in the Alex Cross series, which I'm finding very addictive reading. All the usual elements are here, Cross gets involved in a tough case, trying to track down murderers. In this case, the murders seem highly ritualized, the victims found drained of blood and left hanging from the ceiling or whatever else is handy.

Cross investigates the case with help from some associates, Jamilla Hughes and Kyle Craig of the FBI.

The trail leads to a kind of cult of vampires. At least, these people believe they are vampires. They have get-togethers in which they dress up and play at being vampires, some of them even wear fake fangs in their mouths.

Some of the murders that have been committed are horrid, very violent. In one case, the victim appears to have been mauled by an animal, a tiger.

While Cross is investigating this case, he receives several call on his cellphone, from the Mastermind, a villain he knows from a previous encounter. The Mastermind keeps taunting and threatening Cross, and Cross's family and friends. He also seems to know a lot about where Cross is and what Cross is doing at any particular time.

As the book proceeds, the vampire murders lead Cross into this cult-like world, and he meets some very unusual and kind of scary characters.

There is actually a significant difference between this and a lot of the other Alex Cross novels. It still follows the same basic structure, with some chapters told in the first person point of view as seen by Cross, and others told from the point of view of the villains, in the third person. But it's not the main villain. It turns out that when the main villain is revealed, it's neither one of the characters we'd been following all along.

I did find myself wishing that we'd learned more about that character, and that character's motivations as a result. It actually seemed as if that part of the story ended up getting resolved rather abruptly, and then there are several chapters at the end of the book that resolve the other major plot line involving the Mastermind.

I must admit, I did suspect who the Mastermind might be, so it wasn't a complete surprise. It still made for some exciting scenes, though.

The only trouble here, though, is that by having both of these plot lines in the story, it seemed like Patterson needed to wrap up the first one quickly, and then the Mastermind's plot line wasn't as intertwined with the main plot as I would have liked. I think this part of the story is more of a continuation of what was set up in "Roses Are Red."

There's still lots of action and excitement, you won't be bored. Sometimes, Patterson does seem to portray Cross as being rather larger-than-life, and he also has a few lucky "hunches" in this one. I like it better when clever police work solves a case.

Anyway, I'll have to go back and read "Roses Are Red" to see if both novels work well as a complete story, although I may have spoiled it for myself by reading the later novel first!