Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross) (edició 2003)

This was heavy debate for me on whether or not to give this book 3 or 4 stars. At first I even clicked the 3, but decided that one of my factors had nothing to do with plot, character development, or dialogue. The main thing that almost changed it from 4 stars to 3 had to do with the Kindle version I had. There were sooo many typos that it got distracting. Words were spelled wrong, some words were incorrectly entirely (putting 'he' or 'she', or 'an' for 'and'; typos sure, but they changed the whole meaning of the sentence, paragraph, etc.)

Anyhow, the plot was good and mostly unpredictable. I was pretty sure that Jezzie would have something to do with the final outcome of solving the mystery and the "who-done-it" part especially after how in depth Patterson went to create the new relationship between Cross and herself; Why would an author do that unless he was planning for these characters to get married and spend many more books together, or in the case of this book: plan the biggest betrayal yet. I didn't quite realize the extent of the betrayal though and was ultimately surprised by the ending with the death sentence of Jezzie. The rest of the plot had me guessing and feeling uncertain throughout most of the book... even up to the end with Gary Soneji/Murphy playing the part. I found it interesting the way in which Patterson was able to mold the character into an almost schizophrenic personality, but ultimately at the end Cross was able to figure out that even though he truly was "both" of these characters, he moved in and out of them with free will (figured that out from something that Cross mentioned towards the end of the final capture when he mentioned the way Gary Soneji/Murphy was dressed. He was dressed as Murphy and so chose the first actions on what to accomplish that day as Murphy... although I'm sure it is all highly debatable). Sorry, I'm starting the get off topic.

One thing that surprised (and sometimes annoyed me) was the dry humor in the book. I realize that this really isn't the kind of book that you would go to if you wanted to read a care-free, lighter book, but the humor sometimes had me second guessing if it was even humor.

I'm hoping that the next few Alex Cross books are a little easier to follow (grammatically) in the Kindle versions seeing as I will need to borrow them from the public library's E-book drives. I think I will need to take a little brake from James Patterson's style of writing. It sometimes feels a little choppy and almost like the sentences and paragraphs don't flow exactly like they should... I'm hoping this is something that gets better as the series goes on.

I would recommend this book to readers like myself who like "who done it" books and who aren't a afraid to "stick it out" and will keep reading a book even though it might not be exactly what you thought it was going to be like. I sometimes felt this way throughout the book, but was able to keep plugging away at it. ( )

I really enjoyed this thriller introducing a complex character, Alex Cross. I liked the core characters in the story and the thriller kept me on the edge of my seat. The complexity of who was the "good guy" and who was the "bad guy" kept me interested in the story. Definitely a great introduction to a character I enjoy reading about in each new episode. ( )

NA

Good mystery thriller, shocking twist, but predictable. I have been a fan of Alex Cross, probably Patterson best series and I only been reading his recent ones. ( )

I saw this movie on Amazon now that long ago and I always noticed that it recommended I read the book on here. I always chose something else but since the movie trailer looked good, I decided to read the book before I watched the movie as the books are always better than the movies. I'm really glad that I did, because I just loved this book. I love Alex Cross and I've always loved police and crime solving shows on tv, but for some reason not for books.

This book just drew me in and it is a long book and I just tried to finish it as quick as I could. I'm starting to like crime solving books and I can't wait to read the 2nd book. ( )