Customer Reviews

Black Friday (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This book is pre Alex Cross and certainy not as good but it definitly comes off strong. It is not about serial killers however,and that may be a fresh change in his books. Or refreshed whichever way you look at it since it has been rereleased. That aside, I found this book to be very fast paced and exciting. While some things are predictable (unlike his current works which leave you with the feeling that you will never know what will happen) this book is still very much worth the read. Arch Carroll ( the main character) is not as deeply defined as Alex Cross but this never takes away from a great story that will move you along nicely. I am a fan of great "national security" type books and found this one very satisfying but if one is in the market for a serial escapade then this is not the book for you. If you are in the mood for an abridged Clancy type book then by all means have at it. Will not disappoint!

I saw that there was a "new" James Patterson paperback on the best seller list, so I rushed to the book store and purchased it. That night, I put aside the novel by another writer and anxiously opened Black Friday. "Whoa! This sounds familiar", I thought. "Ah, maybe this will be a book related to Black Market, an older book by Patterson. A new story that develops some of the characters we last saw in Black Market." But, alas, it is the same book with a new name and almost new cover. Boy, do I feel dumb and taken in.

Actually, it was a very good book with lots of great action when it was called Black Market. Why did the publishers think they needed to issue a slightly reworked issue under a new name? Now, I see from the write-ups at Amazon that his next "newest" is a rewrite of another old book. I'm sorry if James Patterson has writers block or something, or perhaps he died and I didn't hear about it. But don't fool us with new names for the same old good stuff we've read before.

If you haven't read Black Market, then get Black Friday. It's certainly worth the cover price.

It's your average suspense/action story. In this day and age, that just doesn't support a book anymore.

The characters seem as though they were ripped straight from "Die Hard". There's the widowed New York cop with a drinking problem and a bad attitude. He has a friend/tutor (the only other man who still believes in him). And then there's the bad guy- an ex-military colonel set on revenge and wealth. You can't get any more redundant.

Even so, the author doesn't seem to understand who his creations really are. He doesn't describe them, he explains them- looking at them from a third-person point of view.

While reading the book, it seems as though Patterson was so focused on his idea of the bombing of Wall Street, he forsake all other elements. He often writes himself into corners, making the bad guys too good at what they do, so that the good guys can only find them through MANY strokes of luck.

The hows and whys are not explained. It is still unclear as to why New York was bombed and how the stolen money was used. Details throughout the book are lacking, so that I'm not even sure how the money was stolen in the first place!

The conclusion only blurs the picture more. What happens to our hero cop? DO the bad guys succeed? You sure can't tell from the way it was written. The chief bad guy isn't mentioned again until the Epilogue, almost as an afterthought.

The guns and explosions were put in great detail, but everything else is only as clear as a paper bag. Stereotyped New Yorkers and B-grade movie lines add to the pain. It's a crowded genre, go find a better book to read.

Beware. This is not a new novel; it's a retread from a poorly writtennovel from the 1980s. I can excuse the author from recycling his old,poorly written novels to capitalize on his recent fame, but at least do some editing and rewriting to bring the novel up to the current times. The gist of the story is: a group of ex-soldiers blow up Wall Street, run off with a couple of billion of stock certificates, and try to destabilize the US economy. Well, where do we start. First, a company like Citigroup alone is worth over $200 BILLION. I doubt that running off with a couple of billion in stock certificates would destabilize the US economy. And stock certificates? Apparently, the author hasn't realized that we're in the computer and information era. Oh, by the way, the characters are boring and the plot (probably the most critical element in a thriller) is inane. The logical jump the main protagonist takes to make the connection between the attack on Wall Street to these group of ex-soldiers is just ridiculous. I reread the key chapter in which this logical connection between the attack and the ex-soliders is made three times to try to figure out whether I had missed something. Nope. Essentially, the case is broke open by a ridiculous plot device.... I paid good money for this lousy book and I want my back.

This book was a big disappointment. First of all it was written years ago, before Mr Patterson was a good writer. It is an example of greed, trying to pass off an early work as new.

Second, for the life of me I can't figure the supposed "plot" in the novel. Who is actually working for who. Who are the real bad guys? And then there is the discovery of who the terrorist is. It is so unbelievable, it will make you laugh.

All in all, a great disappointment from a fine writer

I like most of The Alex Cross books, they are great reads. However this book is not good. If Patterson is going to write about things to do with firearms, he ought to learn some more about them. He had so many errors i could not believe it. Going beyond that the plot is not even believable. How the characters get from pt A to Pt B of ther investigation is a leap of faith. I would not recommend this book to anyone, again i do like a lot of Patterson's books.

I really enjoyed the Alex Cross series, so I thought I would enjoy this book as well. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The story line really dragged on, with very little action. The main character was fairly dull and boring. The story finally picked up towards the end, but by then, I was so worn down by the story, I bearly had the energy or desire to continue. Finally, when the story could have gone on another 50 pages and been worth the reading time, he abruptly ended the story with a cheesy ending. What a waste of my time.

Fans of the Alex Cross novels are in for a BIG disappointment. James Patterson has strayed from his from his "killer" thrillers and has ventured into the Adventure/Espionage territory. I could not finish this book, I found the plot to be weak and the pacing of the book slow.

Like many other readers, I found that this "thriller" had no thrill and no characters I was interested in. More importantly, it is also factually absurd. The plot seems to be based on a high-school-level concept of how Wall Street works (or "worked," since the book was written in the mid 1980s). If you do decide to read this, keep in mind that the plot is pure fantasy. Since Mr. Patterson has so many admirers today, I can only assume that his work has vastly improved since this first came out.

The worst book I have paid for and read in a long time.

The storyline is weak, the plot unbelievable and the characters could be drawn better by a high school student.

It gets a big THUMBS DOWN from me.