Customer Reviews

Step On a Crack

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(40)

 

 

Former President Stephen Hopkins and his wife Ann are out celebrating Christmas as they do every year, having dinner at L'Arene, a trendy New York restaurant, when Ann falls unconscious. She had been poisoned by the Neat Man, a character who knows she has a peanut allergy and takes advantage of this for his own nefarious reason by doctoring her fois gras. The former first lady dies.

The rich, famous and powerful come from all over the world to her funeral at St. Patrick's and some hooded monks take them all hostage. They weren't monks at all and they take their orders from the Neat Man. What do they want? Ransom, of course, lots of it.

NYPD detective Michael Bennett has some problems. His wife is dying of cancer and she's about to leave him with ten adopted children to raise alone. He needs to be by her side, but the hostages need him to negotiate them out of St. Pat's. To say he's conflicted would be an understatement.

Who is the Neat Man? Can Bennett get the hostages out alive? Will some die? All will be answered if you pick up this fast-paced thriller. Again Patterson is writing with another. He just keeps churning them out and I keep reading them. Are his books over the top? Sure, but this one, like his others, is just oh so much fun.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

This was my second Patterson novel, my first was the disappointing "5th Horseman." I don't really understand this author's best selling status? Don't get me wrong, they do have certain trashy appeal, and can be finished during a short plane ride or afternoon at the beach, but there is not much to sink your teeth into, even for the thriller genre (I'm not asking for "War and Peace").

Mike Bennett is an over worked hostage negotiator for NYPD, with a wife dying of cancer and 10 adopted kids. Like he does not have enough on his plate he is thrust into hostage crisis at Saint Pat's Cathedral. An important funeral is interrupted by kidnappers who want millions or a bunch of VIPs are going to be wacked. Bennett manages to deal with the ruthless killers, while spending time with his dying wife, and also keep track of his ten children, and all in a two page chapter! Ok, I am being sarcastic, those who like Patterson's style will probably be happy with this book, and I can't totally trash it as I did finish it and was curious as to how things would turn out. However, I really felt like I was reading a movie script.

First the good news: Alex Cross is not in this book. I was looking for a fresh approach to Patterson's stories, and this one had that potential. It's not that Cross was a bad or inappropriate character... it was just time for somebody else to step up to the plate. In Step on a Crack, it is NYPD Homicide Detective Michael Bennett, with his 10 adopted kids, his terminally ill wife, and the biggest case of his career. He's not quite another Job (that's the biblical Job, not the work job), but let's just agree that he has many, many things going on in his life at the same time. Bennett's faith obviously is being tested.

Now the bad news. You can finish this book in about two hours. The large font (hey, I didn't need my reading glasses... what does that say about his reader's demographics?), hefty margins, and lots of space to take notes (okay, I'm being facetious) all mean that it doesn't feel like a full-length novel. Harry Potter 7 is coming out this summer. It will take hours and hours to read over a period of days. This novel is... reading-lite. It seems to be a reoccurring theme for Paterson's novels. Maybe it only bothers me, but here's what it led to: I started it, and finished it, in the bookstore before I could even buy it... super, super saver!

NYPD Homicide Detective Michael Bennett was a nice guy, like Alex Cross. I hope Patterson bases his characters on real cops. I would guess police work is 80% tedium, 19% action, and 1% terror. Patterson focuses on the intersection of tedium and terror; this is his forte.

I look forward to a Patterson novel that has real meat. Sadly, Step on a Crack was diet food for the mind.

Step on a Crack is the latest novel to be released and to have James Patterson's name on the cover. This book, like all but the Alex Cross novels, has a co-author. Patterson has at least 4 books coming out this year and the cynical will dismiss him as a hack who churns out novels for the money. He probably does do that, and it doesn't really bother me. All Patterson's novels are short and easy to read. Some are good, like the Lifeguard and 4th of July, some are bad like 5th Horseman and Beach Road. I read Step on a Crack with an open mind and was prepared to judge it on its merits. The novel deserves 1 star for incredibly poor characterization but I'm giving it two stars because the terrorist plot is quite intriguing.

A former First Lady is murdered and of course a big funeral must be held. Hotshots from Hollywood, business and politics all show up and a group of terrorists strike, taking over the funeral. They release everyone except around 35 of the chosen big shots that they hope to extort money from. Michael Bennett is an NYPD homicide cop with a wife in the hospital and ten kids, yes ten kids. He gets thrust into the position as the lead negotiator with the terrorists because he has prior experience as a hostage negotiator.

All Patterson novels follow a formula, and this is no exception. The characters have little depth, the plot skips over details. Basically, these books are written like a movie. The action in the book is somewhat intriguing. The hostages (pro football player, aging rock star, hollywood actress, talk show host) are entertaining as their ego-driven personalities have to find a way to cope with each other and the men holding them hostage. The terrorists are American and predictable in their brutality. The big "catch" of the novel is the question: How will the bad guys get away with kidnapping so many famous people in such a public location? The answer isn't that surprising, nor are the clues that lead to the capture of the bad guys.

The book description states: "Bennett--father of ten--is pulled into the fray. As the danger escalates, Michael is hit with devastating news. After fighting for many years, his wife has succumbed to a terrible disease." What is this, Cheaper by the Dozen. The "10 kids" gimmick is ridiculous. The names are thrown about without any recognition by the reader. The respite from the action, with the dying wife, is incredibly contrived and adds absolutely nothing to the book, and that's why I'm so disappointed. The authors knew they needed a subplot, and tried to come up with one they deemed creative, and then tried to use it as a hook to sell the book. It doesn't work. This is a shallow, disappointing effort. Don't waste your money or your time. But don't worry, in 3 months Patterson will have another book out that may be better.

While the book had good, amusing bit characters, and a little suspense, the gimmick with the 10 kids is SO out of place, that it soured me on the entire novel.

This read like a late book review completed to avoid an "Incomplete" in a compulsory English class; there must have been a deadline from the publisher to keep the advance. I found the Women's Murder Club mysteries entertaining, but this was popular writing for hire -- a reputation for sale to an aspiring co-writer. The plot reminded me of the incredibly weak "Armageddon" movie from 1998 with Bruce Willis, because I was also unable to suspend disbelief for that project; throughout the book, I reacted with "Come On!" Maybe it's time for me to give up on Patterson.

I don't know why I keep reading James Patterson novels. I guess it's just that they're so abundant; a new one comes out every two months. And they're such short, quick reads. By the time you decide that one isn't worth reading, you're half way through and decide you might as well finish it, no matter how lame it may be.

There is no doubt in my mind that a novel like Step on a Crack would never get published if it were written by an unknown author. This novel is an unremarkable and uninspired re-tread of every hostage-siege novel, movie, or TV show you have ever seen or read.

Jack and the `neat man' are moderately entertaining bad guys, but there is nothing interesting about the collection of stereotypical celebrity hostages. Our hero is an Irish version of Alex Cross, with a family that is too good to be true and a personal life burdened with tragedy.

For a popular suspense writer, James Patterson is strangely inept at generating suspense. Suspense needs to nurtured by the author, to build its own momentum. Patterson seems to think that suspense consists of painfully dull scenes of domestic life separated by sudden bursts of action. During breaks in the action Patterson tires to tug at your heart strings by devoting large portions of the novel to his hero's personal life, (he has ten adopted kids and a terminally ill saint for a wife) but Patterson fails to draw any real emotion from these chapters.

There is nothing new or fresh in this novel. Reading Step on a Crack is like watching a re-run of a mediocre TV show because you can't be bothered to change the channel.

I should have paid closer attention to the reviews on Amazon before I purchased this book, but since I have always enjoyed his earlier novels I assumed (there's that word assume) that this would be a super read. Well Mr. Patterson something in your creative or your co-author's creative mind went down hill, because for me this novel was a big disappointment. I will give a brief synopsis of the story for those folks that are not familiar with the novel.

The story starts off with the death of Caroline Hopkins, a former First Lady and her funeral is attended by the cream of the crust, consisting of the most influential and wealthiest individuals at the Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Unfortunately, a group of men take them hostage and will do anything to meet their private objectives. I thought Mr. Patterson developed the hostage characters very well. He had a knack for dropping little traits about these characters, but I had wished that there was a good dose of some thriller scenes.

Next on the scene is Michael Bennett, a detective for NY Police Department, and he is forced into the role of negotiator. Meanwhile, his personal life is in turmoil. His beloved wife is terminally ill with cancer and he is left caring for their ten children. You need to read that number again! Ten! Yes,I did type in the number 10. There must have been a reason for so many children, but I didn't find it in the story. 4 children would have been just fine and more realistic. To give credit where credit is due I did find that the author was able to weave Michael's love for his wife, Maeve, and their children into many sensitive, believable scenes. But, still I couldn't connect to this super father and hero.
STEP ON A CRACK is an easy beach read, but it's not a super mystery, and if you are thrifty person like myself, you may be disappointed in the waste of your hard earned money.

**Warning - Review contains spoilers!** This is the James Patterson that wrote the Alex Cross novels? I don't think so. With a weak plot and inane dialog, this novel could not have been written by the same man who scared the living daylights out of me with "Kiss the Girls" or "Jack and Jill". The characters lack depth, the dialog is wooden and unrealistic, bordering on the absurd and the plot was done previously and oh so much better by Nelson DeMille in 'Cathedral". The author has obviously never been around children from the speeches he gave the lead character's tykes and the death scene, that should have been touching, was so contrived it was right out of a 40's B movie. A very bad 40's B movie. Poor Michael Bennett must be the only policeman in New York with all the action he sees but my favorite part of the whole silly book was when the author asked us to believe that the kidnappers spent 48 hours wearing ski masks over diving masks and monks robes over wet suits over jogging suits? You have got to be kidding! Research, man, research!! Don't waste your time with this one. If James Patterson's name weren't on the cover, this novel would have been sent back by the teacher with a "C- Needs work!!!".

All I can think of is maybe James Patterson gave Michael Ledwidge an outline - one that I suspect Patterson may have crafted down to the chapter level - and then Ledwidge hit Patterson with something very heavy, and proceeded to fill in the blanks with no review process by any other literate person in the publishing industry. I have never written a review for Amazon - but then again, I have never read a work put forth by a respectable publishing company that makes me cringe as this novel does. Hyperbole? I wish I could say I was exaggerating. If there is a cliche existing in the world, it is used in this work - often inappropriately. There is no substance to the protagonist. I feel nothing for him. Nothing. There are countless sentences with such mangled structure that I often found myself laughing out loud. Apparently, Ledwidge has never met an adverb he didn't like. Rather than write a taut bit of prose that conveys emotion, Ledwidge seems to prefer italicizing anything he deems remotely emphatic or important. Mr. Patterson, if Michael Ledwidge is blackmailing you - please - I beg of you. Nothing he has on you could be as damaging to your reputation as _Step on a Crack_. The tragedy of this novel is that the concept is a good one - this story could work. Unfortunately, the writing is so abysmal (a word I don't use lightly) it obfuscates any glimmer of worth. I am a big Patterson fan. I just wish I could hear his voice in _Step on a Crack_.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I use to eagerly await the latest James Patterson book. Sadly, Patterson has taken the route so many writers take when they become successful - they write to meet the demands of a publisher who has signed them to mega-dollar contracts. Step on a Crack was boring and hum-drum. Where normally I do not want to put a Patterson book down and read every word to see how he develops the chararcters, I found myself skipping pages and whole sections of the book - because I knew I wasn't missing anything. While I thought the ending was clever, it was not really shocking. In hindsight, I should have done what Billy Crystal did in the movie When Harry Met Sally - read the last chapter to see how the book ended. I wouldn't have missed anything.