Customer Reviews

Cat & Mouse (Alex Cross Novels)

5 star:		(134)
4 star:		(87)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

Alex Cross, James Patterson's returning character, is truly one today's greatest, most well developed 'hero' found in print! In Cat and Mouse, Cross's fourth book, the reader is sent on a roller coaster ride of plot twists all written in an almost groundbreaking 'change of perspective' style. Live the unfolding mystery through Alex Cross's eyes and others around him as they interact with one another in an attempt to stop the returning villian from Patterson's previous book Along Came a Spider-Gary Soneji. Or is it someone else? In this book Patterson has topped himself once again concerning the 'fleshing out' of his star Alex Cross. The interaction between the detective and those around him such as his children, mother and love interest creates a spellbinding atmosphere that is rarely achieved in today's 'suspense' books. But therein is only one of the author's strengths, the storyline is presented in a unique and captivating way, with a seemingly unbelievable twist occurring halfway through instead of at the end. Lastly, don't be misled by my harping on the merits of this book's character interaction. Its greatest asset is the mystery villian, and Alex Cross's attempts at identifying him/her. *Previous book alert* I suggest you read the first three Alex Cross books in this order:Along Came a Spider,Kiss the Girls, and Jack and Jill. (at the very least Along..) before reading Cat and Mouse.

Cat & Mouse was the story of Alex Cross, an African-American police officer who was working on a case of two serial killers. One was Gary Soneji--the antagonist from Patterson's previous thriller Along Came a Spider--who was hellbent on taking revenge on Cross, family included. The other was Mr. Smith, a serial killer with split personalities who performed "autopsies" on his victims while they were still alive.

This book has a good balance of scenes between Cross' personal life (his loving grandmother, his huge best friend Samson, his two beautiful children, and their teacher whom he is falling in love with) and business life.

The book is very easy to follow and goes by at a very quick pace. The characters were realistic along with the plot.

The thing that I liked most about the book was the way Patterson told the story. I actually found myself feeling sorry for the bad guys as well as the good, which usually never happens.

I would recommend this book to anyone but be sure not to make the same mistake I made. I started the book late at night before I went to bed at about 11 o'clock. It was so good that I continued to read until three in the morning, which left me sleepy and irritable the next day at work. If you are going to read this book, be sure to start it when you have at least two hours of spare time.

P.S. Please read my other reviews.

Cat and Mouse by James Patterson Warner Books, 1997

A former nemisis of Alex Cross, Gary Soneji, has escaped from jail and is intent on building his reputation as the best (worst?) serial killer in the world and to add Alex Cross to his growing list of victims. Shooting people like fish in a barrel in Washington and New York train stations brings Alex in close contact with this vicious psychopath whose final words seems to indicate that Cross and his family are doomed.

Meanwhile in Europe another serial killer nick named "Mr. Smith" is dispatching victims at and incredible rate and he too would like to end the career of Alex Cross. As Alex becomes involved in this case he must figure out the tantalizing clues left by the killer before he too becomes a victim of the brilliant "Mr. Smith".

A real page turner filled with incredible tension softened somewhat and made human by Alex's growing love for the beautiful Christine Johnson. For thriller readers a real must.

Alex Cross is as close to a superhero as a mortal man can be, but even the self-proclaimed Dragon Slayer is in danger from two fiends at once: The psychopathic madman Gary Soneji, his arch rival from "Along Came the Spider"--and a new, even more psycho murderer named "Mr. Smith," who is cutting a wide swathe (literally) all over Europe and the United States.

Soneji is, incredibly, out of prison, and he has a mighty score to settle with Cross. So he drops a few hints--like sniper shootings at New York's Grand Central Station. Just for starters. We know that Soneji has Cross's house under surveillance, and that he knows way way too much about Cross's loved ones--his young son and daughter, and his beloved grandmother, Nana Mama. It's only a matter of time before his insane vengeance reaches Cross himself. Cross knows it too, but Soneji is a genius, and even Cross can't find him.

Juxtaposed against this mystery is the parallel one of the diabolical Mr. Smith, who has thus far eluded Interpol, Scotland Yard, the FBI, and hundreds of police from Europe and the US. He makes Soneji look like an amateur, and Cross very much does NOT want to get involved in the case, despite pleas from his FBI friends. Yeah, right. When you're the Dragon Slayer, you gotta slay the dragons! Cross is pulled in to the Smith case as well, and it's too much even for him.

While all this is going on, Cross is falling head over heels in love with teacher/school principal Christine, who we met in "Jack and Jill." Recently widowed, Christine isn't ready for a relationship. And Cross is so involved with the two murder cases, he can't give her all the time he wants. Worse--BOTH murderers know about her too...everyone Alex loves is in danger.

My only small criticism with the book is that it suddenly changes from one case to the other right in the middle of the story. And while it makes sense, since one situation has been solved, it is much too abrupt for this reader's comfort. We leave a key player (I won't do a spoiler here) near death--and suddenly that person is recovered and back in action. There's an explanation, but it was a bit too pat for my taste.

No matter, though. "Cat and Mouse" gallops along just like its predecessors, and made me love Alex Cross even more than before. I hope this series never ends!

CAT AND MOUSE is James Patterson's fourth book in the Alex Cross series and he continues with his excellent stories even though this one falls short when compared to his earlier works.

Gary Soneji, the villain seen in previous works, is back along with a cohort, Mr. Smith, a mysterious killer currently invading Europe. With Soneji reeking havoc on the US Eastern Coast, and Mr. Smith in Europe comparing notes and competing, Alex Cross must stop both of them, albeit not single handedly.

Since Soneji's recent escape from prison, he has vowed revenge with Alex Cross for putting him there. Seems now he has AIDS and knows his time is limited so his vendetta is at the forefront of his mind. He has tunnel vision and is only focusing on what he wants to do to Alex and his family. What's creepy about this is Soneji hiding in Alex's basement without anyone knowing he's there (which he does several times). I would have thought a police detective would have better security than this and this was too unbelievable for me to comprehend.

As Soneji is leading Alex all over via Amtrak, FBI profiler, Thomas Pierce is hot on the trail of Mr. Smith in Paris and London. Bouncing back and forth across the Atlantic became a bit jerky and I felt some motion sickness. These were not smooth transitions all the time - it was almost as if Patterson wrote two separate stories and just placed them together as you would shuffle cards.

Character development was superb. Patterson lets Alex evolve by showing us his sensitive side with the wooing of Christina Johnson at the Rainbow Room in New York. He portrays Alex as a sensitive, tough cop who is the dream man for most women. Sampson is another who can fall into the sensitive-tough guy role and it does not detract from his persona but instead attracts. Soneji continues to be a moral outcast and nothing is too diabolical for him. Because Mr. Smith's identity is hidden, he is a bit under-developed; however, the parallels between he and Pierce are clear.

The suspense is at an all time high with CAT AND MOUSE, but knowing the identity of Mr. Smith is not a surprise. The conclusions to most subplots are anti-climatic and not up to Patterson's usual cliffhanger mode. It was as if he gave up in the middle of this project and quickly tied things up. Although a good book, the first books in this series surpass CAT AND MOUSE.

Along Came a Spider was brilliant. Kiss the Girls was good. Jack and Jill was okay. Notice the pattern.

Cat and Mouse follows the tend and ends up being a terrible novel and hence explains the poor rating this reviewer gave (1 measly star). Cat and Mouse follows the adventures of Alex Cross, the black detective/psychologist, who has a knack for bringing down incredibly stupid serial killers and go about their disturbing fetishes with the most absurd of motives.

Below I will list some of the mistakes with this novel:
- The character of 'Mr Smith' is totally unbeilable, and his motives are never fully explained
- When the Cross family is brutally attacked, why didn't Soneji's pal just kill them all

I can go on forever, but I just don't have the time. Two mistakes should be sufficient. Anyway, I sure hope Patterson writes better novels because I seriously can't be bothered writing more reviews.

I was grateful to see other one-star reviews. After seeing all the raves on the book itself, I thought I might be the only one who found this book truly awful. I finished it only out of curiosity (kind of like watching a roadside accident.)

I honestly think it may be one of the worst written books of any kind (not just thrillers) I have ever read. There must be some unwritten rule with Mr. Patterson that chapters end after 250 words, whether something meaningful has happened or not. Sometimes a chapter would end with Cross sitting down to think and the next chapter would begin with him standing up. (This is only a slight exaggeration.)

The 2 killers move from crime to crime without any explanation of their invulnerability. They escape, assume new disguises, change venues in the blink of an eye. Real police work is nonexistent.

Every now and then, Mr. Patterson uses exclamation points and a word like "hell" or "crazy" to show how breathtaking the story is: "We were in hell!" "Things were crazy!" Occasionally, words were put in italics, just to show that other print fonts were available.

Sometimes words were put in quotation marks without rhyme or reason. Example: Cross goes home and it felt like "being home." Of course it felt like being home! You are home, you moron!

The actual story had all the excitement of reading stereo instructions. There is no buildup to the final confrontation with Mr. Smith - and the revealed message that leads to that confrontation is ludicrous.

I must admit that I actually cried briefly at the end of the book, at the sheer relief of being finished with it.

The novel, Cat and Mouse, describes the life of Alex Cross, a Washington detective who is chasing one of the worlds most notorious serial killers, Gary Soneji. The author of the novel, James Patterson takes you through a series of grotesque murders committed by Gary Soneji. With Alex Cross on the case it is a compelling, fast-paced story that forces you to keep reading. Alex Cross has been searching for Gary Soneji ever since he got out of jail and started committing more murders. Gary Soneji's lofty intelligence has made this case more difficult and time consuming than Detective Cross can hardly handle. Soneji's sick mind takes Cross on a wild and exciting "cat and mouse" chase around the east coast. Just when you think that Alex Cross caught Soneji the story turns the opposite direction. Gary Sonejihas a cohort named "Mr. Smith" who is also a demented serial killer out on the rampage. To me the book was the best I have ever read. It kept me in suspence the whole time. James Patterson is a creative writer who deserves all the credit he got. This book well deserves its number one bestseller rating. In my opinion this novel shows thesick side of the real world. James Patterson's use of informal modern English makes the novel easy to read. He symbolizes Cross's old black Porsche, that is in bad need of a paint job, with how Cross does not have enough time to go buy a new car. He spends all of his extra time with his children since the case takes up most of it. Cat and Mouse is filled with true life accounts that will make the reader's curiosity run wild with excitement but will also make them shake with fright. It shows the real world is a scary place that should not be dealt with lighty. The overall theme of the novel is that life is precious and some bad things happen to good people.

To date, I have never finished an Alex Cross novel. He is remarkably boring and too predictable. Sure he's a detective with a heart of gold (He drives buses for poor kids, he slaves in the soup kitchens for poor kids...heck!), but he needs to toughen up. Anyway. Cat and Mouse is jarring, slow, and unimaginative. I think Patty is trying to escape the confines of Cross seeing as though several recent novels (When the Wind Blows, Cradle and ALL) have been offered. Oh! And who could forget that Diary one. I finish every Patterson novel that doesn't involve Cross, but I am however going to pick up Kiss the Girls, because I have heard that that one is a real, genuine corker. I think I might even buy the Diary one in paperback, because I know for a fact I will finish it. Cat and Mouse...nah.

Someone told me this book was a real page-turner. I guess it is: since each chapter is about two pages long, it's easy to keep turning the pages - no challenges to low levels of concentration here. In fact the book is so devoid of description and so full of ridiculous superficial events that just about anyone could keep turning the pages.

(Warning-I give away clues in the next few paragraphs.)

The premise--such as it is--of the plot is that there are two psychotic serial murderers on the loose trying to kill the main character. I guess one maniac is not enough to keep our interest anymore. The author apparently is trying to "get inside the mind" of these murders by having the main character try to interpret "clues" from each of the crime scenes that will predict his next murder. These clues are completely absurd and trivial: the murderer could not play with trains as a child, and now he murders in train stations. I could go on, there are many more examples of such obvious plotting, but why bother-reading about them once was too much.

So after the murder of several cops in their own homes (!) and some ridiculously gross murders--which we are thankfully spared all the details of--the murderer apparently dies. On to the next criminal. The other serial murderer also has the psychological depth of a worm. He, too, engages in inane and gross murders. This killer, though, is not the victim of a sadistic childhood, but a supposedly intelligent man obsessed with the language theories of--you guessed it-- Noam Chomsky. (I guess Richard Patterson went to college, because his narrative is sprinkled with references to a wide array of philosophers--although in referring to them, Patterson seems unaware that they have widely varying outlooks.) So the hero finally figures out that the killer's obsession with language-foolishly reduced here to discovering that the initials of each victim's name spell out a confession-is the key to the crime. None of that has anything to do with Chomsky's theories about language.

All right, if that is not enough to keep you from reading the book, how about the ridiculous characterization of the hero-Alex Cross? Patterson tries to create an African American protagonist-I guess that is laudable-but very little about him seems authentic. Cross's ideas about race, some of his choice of words (referring to a portable stereo as a "blaster") and many of his thoughts and ideas seem more like what a liberal white man would say. A good writer would work harder at giving us a deeper portrayal.

So, if you want to read a long, shallow, gory, poorly written book-go ahead-but I wouldn't want to waste my time.