Customer Reviews

See How They Run

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I give this book 2 stars because I can't say it's the worst book I have ever read. It doesn't, however, come close to Along Came A Spider or Kiss the Girls; the latter of which I read at every waking moment. That one is impossible to put down. This book however was not what you expect after reading the back cover. First, I found the summary given on the back very misleading. Second, it is so hard to follow. Trying to keep track of who each person is from their code names is no easy task. Not to mention all the foreign words in the book that after a while are just plain aggravating. I read the whole thing hoping it would get better; and also because even if it doesn't keep me at the edge of my chair, curiosity makes me want to know how it ends. Unfortunately, that too was a let down. I don't recommend this book at all! I still love James Patterson and will continue to read his books. I've already bought 4 more. I just think that he seriously dropped the ball on this one. If you've never read James Patterson please don't choose this book. Try one of the others I mentioned in my review. This one would sour you to the good writer that he really is. Sorry Mr. Patterson but this one shouldn't bear your name!

I was very excited when I saw the book and when I read it I was very disappointed. It was very confusing, a great example of this was Hitler having lunch in Washington D.C. several decades after the war. More Alex Cross, please!

I bought this book because of James Patterson's previous works: Along Came A Spider and Kiss the Girl. Those are excellent books, but this one, See How They Run, is simply bad.

The book has a misleading backcover, it says Alix Rothschild is running for her life, in fact, she never really did. The book is hard to follow, complicated by all the foreign language inserted. At least he should insert an English translation right after a phrase. In quite a few places the story is not logical or consistant, which really upsets me.

Maybe this is a much earlier work of James Patterson? or he start to outsouce his work? The writing style are totally different then those center on Alex Cross.

I cannot believe that this is the James Patterson that writes all of my favourite books - Along Came A Spider, Kiss The Girls, Cat and Mouse etc.. This has got to be the 2nd JP book that I have hated so much that I had to put it down halfway through, I never ever ever do that to JP!

Although I was looking forward to reading about the Jews, Nazis, Hilter, this book was so unbelievably boring that I did not care about what was going to happen to Alix or any of the silly characters.

I did not know that this was written in the 70's, before his success with Alex Cross, if I had known that, I would never have bothered to pick it up.

Please, if you are looking for the suspense-filled, action packed, twists and turns at every moment, usual JP books, this do yourself a favour and DO NOT READ THIS ONE!

Thank goodness for Alex Cross!

This is book was originally the Jericho Commandment which was one of the first books he wrote in 1979. The information in this book is all fiction. You will get dissapointed in James Patterson after reading 'See How They Run" if you read Jack and Jill before.

Granted this is not the best James Patterson work and what does it say that he can recycle a book and have it hit the top 10 lists like Cradle and All.

However this is a great premise with decent writing and yes you are trying to figure out who is who until the end. There are typical double crosses and unthinkable acts that our the trademark of J. Patterson.

Jews acting as Nazi's--even this might be a little overboard-but hey not every book will be a home run for any writer. It's not like you read JP for the great literature--if you want a story that will keep you captivated and guessing this is a solid pick.

I have to say that I didn't like SEE HOW THEY RUN and that's surprising since I've loved all of the other books by James Patterson that I've read. I'm not sure if it was the disappointment of Alex Cross not being in this tale, or the bouncing around, both physical and emotionally.

The story revolves around Dr. David Strauss and opens with his wife being murdered at a party, in which he barely escapes. At almost the same time, his brother is killed at the Academy Awards and he then finds out that his old girlfriend is on the run for her life. So begins Strauss' search into why this is happening to his family and close friends. A search that drags the reader along as he streaks across Europe, to the Nazi concentration camps and finally ends up in Moscow in time for the Olympics.

The tale leaps from place to place, and emotion to emotion with no clear cut methodology and leaves the reader with jet lag. Throughout SEE HOW THEY RUN, I found myself wondering why Patterson had included everything that he did and where his logic for that inclusion had come from. It was never clearly explained and many loose ends were left dangling. Instead of fooling the reader by covering up the guilty parties and their reasons for the assassinations with excellent dialog and mysterious situations, he keeps pulling new things in to confuse you.

To me it seemed as if he didn't have a clear outline in the beginning of the book and kept adding things that "sounded good" to get the number of pages needed to publish it. Don't read this book and judge it to be a typical James Patterson novel - which would make you not want to read any of his other books, which are definitely worth reading. I'd like to chalk this up to a decent try, but definitely not a contender for a great book!

James Patterson has a problem: his books are either really good, or really, really bad. See How They Run is the second one. (Some books that are really good by him are Kiss The Girls, Along Came A Spider, Hide and Seek, Jack and Jill....I think thats it.) I'm not exactly sure why I didn't like this book, I guess it was because it was really STUPID. It didn't entertain me at all. James Patterson is a really good author (sometimes) and if you would like to read some of his books, I recommend the ones I said earlier.

Some James Patterson readers just cannot understand why his early books are actually very good. But they are...

James Patterson's early books are gems to be savoured as they are some of the few example of him when he actually wrote GOOD prose, before he began churning them out like Danielle Steele just for a few more bucks. The prose in his latest books is unashamedly simplistic and shallow, and completely lacks any kind of depth. here, at least, his prose is far better.

And, the story looses absolutely nothing. It is still very suspenseful, pageturning, etc. All the things for which Patterson is best known. The good writing takes absolutely nothign away from the excitement and overall quality of the plot and even, at times, adds to it.

The plot itself is strong (if rather unrealistic...but then, we do not look to Patterson for realism) and much better developed than those of his latest books. The characters are also more well-drawn (still not good...but character development has never been one of his grest strength, unless of course you're talking about the villains in his first three Cross thrillers.) It's also a book which puts forward lots of moral issues, and probably plays around with yourbeliefes and conceptions about what is good and what is bad. I.e. the villains are not who at first we think they are, but they are an altogether different group of people whom we feel a great empathy for.

There are still twists aplenty throughout the book, and it powers along with the speed and inevitability of a freight train. The climax is great, and the relationship between Alix and David touching (although its not quite understandable how David so quickly gets over the death of his wife)

If only James Patterson would go back to this style. Good writing AND a great plot...now, there's something to look out for from JP.

I love Patterson; however, this book is so full of inconsistencies, false "facts", missing links, crazy mysteries and unfinished story lines, that I simply cannot recommend it to anyone. While, the general idea for this book's plot may be interesting (even though apparently it's highly controversial to some people), the author made it boring, flat, and not believable at all.

At times it almost seems as if Patterson were writing 3 or more books at once and he went back and forth between them whilst forgetting which one he is writing at the moment.

In my opinion the worst thing about this book is not the plot, not even all the things that made no sense, but the absolute lack of depth of the characters. These people seem absolutely unreal, which bothers me to no end.