Black Friday (Mass Market Paperback)

by James Patterson (Author) "COLONEL DAVID HUDSON leaned his tall, athletic body against the squat, battered trunk of one of New York's Checker-style taxis..." (more)
Key Phrases: crisis room, green band, bank assistant, New York, Wall Street, David Hudson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
While Patterson's thriller is slightly out-of-date with its Cold War setting, it remains dramatically contemporary in its vision of a stock market thrown into chaos when a group of saboteurs blows up several Wall Street institutions. Actor Fernandez's mellow reading allows the story to unfold unhurriedly, though too slowly for the first half. Arch Carroll, head of the CIA's antiterrorist division, and Caitlin Dylan, director of enforcement for the SEC, team up professionally, and later romantically, to locate the Wall Street terrorists before they strike again. Arch travels to Paris and back (unfortunately, Fernandez, who capably reproduces other accents, has a poor grasp of French pronunciation), as he finds himself on the trail of former colonel David Hudson and his ragtag band of vengeance-seeking Vietnam veterans. Based on the Warner mass market paperback (originally published as Black Market in 1987).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review
"Patterson, among the best novelists of crime stories ever, has reached his pinnacle."

-- USA TODAY

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Vision (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446609323
• ISBN-13: 978-0446609326
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Patterson but certainly not bad Patterson, April 17, 2000

By	"doc_ew" (Toronto,ON) - See all my reviews

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!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why trick us with a new name?, May 22, 2000

By	Phillip Grady Wilks (Okinawa, Japan) - See all my reviews

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 7 bucks? Buy yourself a lunch before you get this book., January 23, 2001

By	"garbageman" (Sterling, VA United States) - See all my reviews

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.