Violets Are Blue ~ Detective Alex Cross Series [Hardcover]

James Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2001

Detective Alex Cross must confront his most terrifying nemesis ever-and his own deepest fears-in this electrifying new thriller from the master of suspense, James Patterson.

Alex Cross has never believed in vampires. But when two joggers are found slain in a manner that suggests a macabre ritual, he has to reconsider. Someone believes in vampires enough to have committed a series of bizarre murders that appear to be the work of one. Local police are horrified, and even the FBI is baffled.

Cross takes on the case and plunges into a netherworld of secret clubs and role-players, a world full of poseurs and playactors-and someone demented enough to have crossed the line from dark ritual to real blood. At the same time, a lethal super-criminal from Cross's past known as the Mastermind is stalking him, taunting him, and threatening everything he holds dear. Cross has never been closer to defeat, or in greater danger. In a shocking conclusion, Alex Cross must survive a deadly confrontation-only to discover at last the awful secret of the Mastermind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fans of James Patterson's resourceful cop Alex Cross will be relieved to find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and, more importantly, that this is one of the best Alex Cross thrillers yet.

The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is fixing to give Alex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in a particularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have been viciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blood drained from their corpses. And when further brutal deaths follow in California and on the East Coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility of modern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the many sinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by Jamilla Hughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds that he has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop further bloodletting.

Patterson fans expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of them here!), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personal life, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resist reading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thriller reader's medal. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

Washington, D.C., police detective Alex Cross returns for another visit (after Roses Are Red) to the top of the lists and for two new cases of disparate quality. The first, which dominates the narrative, takes place within America's vampire underground and is as exciting as anything Patterson has written; the second, in which Cross at last defeats the nemesis known as "the Mastermind," feels tacked on only to knot loose ends. In San Francisco, two joggers are slain, seemingly by both tiger and human teeth, and their blood drained; then an upscale couple is killed similarly in Marin County deaths suggestive of an earlier Cross case, prompting the detective's old pal Kyle Craig of the FBI to ask for his help. Craig's plea plunges Cross not only into a fetishistic netherworld in which thousands play at being vampires and a handful actually do kill for blood, but into personal turbulence as he alienates his family by his dedication to work, and as his always troubled love life takes further dips and flights, the latter in the company of SFPD Insp. Jamilla Hughes, who joins him on the cases. We know the good guys' immediate quarry, but they don't: two golden young men, brothers and self-styled vampires, with a pet tiger at their side. But who is the Sire, their ultimate leader? Meanwhile, the Mastermind, a brilliant homicidal maniac, plagues Cross with threatening phone calls. Most readers probably won't finger the Sire, but anyone who can't name the Mastermind long before Patterson reveals his identity must be reading this book backwards. The action reels around the country, from D.C. to California to Las Vegas to North Carolina, and readers will be swept away by it and by Patterson's expert mixing of Cross's professional and personal challenges. The narrative split between the two cases, vampiric and Mastermind, jars but not enough to seriously mar fans' pleasure, and the two cases will probably mesh more elegantly in the inevitable movie to come. (Nov. 19)Forecast: Is there a writer hotter than Patterson? A 10-city author tour, the forthcoming TV miniseries of his First to Die, and the simultaneous AudioBooks (unabridged and abridged, tape and CD) of Violets Are Blue will only increase the heat.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 393 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (November 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316693235
• ISBN-13: 978-0316693233
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (348 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

James Patterson...


* James Patterson holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 63 New York Times bestselling titles.

* JP has sold more than 220 million books worldwide. And considering pass-along and libraries, it's safe to say many more people than that have read a Patterson!

* In 2010, JP was named by kids everywhere the Children's Book Councils' Children's Choice Book Awards "Author of the Year" in 2010. More than 15,000 kid and teen readers voted for JP in a category he shared with Suzanne Collins, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Kinney, and Rick Riordan. His Witch and Wizard series saw the biggest launch of a series for young readers ever, surpassing sales of first installments of Twilight, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians.

* JP has grossed over 3 billion dollars in worldwide sales. This is larger than the worldwide theatrical gross of Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time.

* JP has had 43 New York Times hardcover #1 bestselling novels, also a publishing industry record.

* Last year, JP has sold more books than John Grisham, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King combined (source: Nielsen BookScan).

* JP properties are gaining wide interest amongst film and TV producers. JP's award-winning series for young readers, Maximum Ride, is currently with Avi Arad (Spiderman, Iron Man) and Universal Pictures. Lloyd Levin (Green Zone, Watchmen) is attached to produce a feature film adaptation of JP's newest young readers series, Witch and Wizard, and James Patterson Entertainment is set to produce the next Alex Cross film, I, Alex Cross which will feature Idris Elba (The Wire, The Losers) as Alex Cross. And, a television adaptation of JP's 2007 love story Sundays At Tiffanys aired in December 2010 starring Alyssa Milano and Eric Winter.

* JP's books are licensed in 43 countries worldwide, and are in print and actively sold in 100 countries.

* According to a 2010 Bowker Sisters in Crime Survey, JP is the favorite mystery writer amongst readers under 50...AND over 50! Survey respondents comprised American men, women and teens who bought at least one mystery fiction title in 2009 and/or 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Vampires, Tigers and Alex Cross, OH MY!, February 7, 2002

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Violets Are Blue ~ Detective Alex Cross Series (Hardcover)

It may be true that when an author becomes enormously popular while writing a suspenseful series, they're under some sort of pressure to keep writing more and more covoluted or even more and more bizarre plots to keep readers interested. Enter James Patterson not entirely unknown for some strange plots in his stand aloen books or even bizarre premises i.e., his older title When the Wind Blows where children are gnetically altered in the womb so they are born with wings and can fly. Once again in his latest Alex Cross book, Patterson introduces several more bizarre elemnts to a case Alex tries to solve.

In the novel, Violets are Blue, two brothers are featured as grisly serial killers whose murders at times either resemble the work of vampires or tigers. Now thousands of readers favorite psychology/detective is on a mission to find the killer when his partner is found dead. And if this isn't enough, almost immediately in another part of the country another murder occurs which almost mimcs Alex's partners death. As Alex crisscrosses the nation investigating these bizarre murders and some other very weird folks, somebody known as the Mastermind is keeping track of Alex's every move. Its as if this individual, who some readers may remember from the previous book Roses are Red, is always one step in front of Alex taunting him with warning phone calls and threats agaisnt his family. Alex spends the majority of the book preplexed, confused, overworked and overwrought. By the end, Patterson ties up at least two parts of the plots neatly but leaves one danglgnthread. And it is this thread which left this reader perplexed, confused and overwrought. For it seems that this may be the end of Alex Cross or is it?

Fear not Patterson fans if this is the end for dear Alex. We can eagerly wait for the second book featuring the Womens Murder Club from 1st to Die and perhaps another romance goodie like Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. But this reader still can't help but remember how much I enjoyed Along Came a Spider when Alex Cross burst onto the literary scene and had me holding my breath till the next book was published.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars two tales in one.......not a good thing, December 19, 2003

By 

jeanne-scott (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Violets Are Blue (Alex Cross) (Mass Market Paperback)

Violets Are Blue is almost two completely separate tales in one book. One involves gruesome murders where the blood has been drained from the victims. This series of gorey murders leads into the world of modern vampires. This is frightening and intriguing and draws the reader into the dark world of fact and fiction surrounding this cult-like existence. It is both fascinating and repelling at the same time. When the Mastermind, the bad guy from Roses Are Red, turns out to be involved, then it begins to feel like two separate stories that never quite seem to fit themselves together. This would have been far better had the Mastermind not been a part of this. That part feels forced. You never feel like "Oh yeah, now I see who it was!" more like "Oh, him........well, I guess so."
It just kind of fizzles in the finale.

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Patterson is still on top!!!!!!!, November 22, 2001

By 

Chris (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Violets Are Blue ~ Detective Alex Cross Series (Hardcover)

I was getting very bored with Alex Cross, and the number of Alex Cross books James Patterson was putting out. I was glad he came out with Suzannes Diary for Nickholas and 1st to Die. I was reading about Mr.Patterson last night, and I read that he said that after 2 books going back to Alex Cross is going to be fun, and that he has great ideas about this book.

Anyways, I have read it, in 2 days, and it is the 2nd best book of his I have read (When the Wind Blows is first). This book was very creepy, and very intence, and I enjoyed every page I read. James Patterson is still on top...............