5TH Horseman by James Patterson ISBN: 0316159778 Publisher: Little Brown amazon.com $16.99
James Patterson is one of the “best-Selling” authors of all time. In the 5TH Horseman Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer investigates the death of a young woman; apparently not related to the symptoms of the illness she was admitted for, in a top-tier San francisco hospital.
So begins the tale of “Badge number twenty-seven twenty-one” ‘s latest puzzler in the Golden Gated City. Initially I was going to do a straight book review, since this is for associatedcontent.com- where the site members are writers- I thought a discussion of some of author James Patterson’s prior work would be enlightening.
If you have ever started to write a novelyou can appreciate the various elements that go into successfully relating the story you are compelled to tell.
Perhaps Patterson’s most-read novel Along Came a Spider, wherein a Congressman’s daughter is kidnapped from her classes at the prestigious preparatory school she attends, is the initial volume in the Detective Doctor, Alex Cross series.
Kiss the Girls, Jack & Jill, Cat & Mouse, Pop Goes the Weasel, Roses are Red, Violets are Blue and Four Blind Mice are all familiar aphorisms and easy to remember when ordering online. The initial essential element is a title that arouses curiosity in the prospective reader.
For long-time James Patterson readers , following the adventures of familiar characters as they deal with new adversaries and their machinations is satisfying because it is like hearing a story of dire happenings overcome narated by close friend of yours.
Developing characters like attorney Yuki Castellano in 5TH Horseman (who is very likeable and easy for the reader to develop an emotional relationship with) than having bad things happen to her raises, raises the tension level. A dastardly-dislikeable villan such as Gary Soneji, a brillant mathematics teacher and psychopath (I always thought they were merely sadists) lived in a two-story, white-painted brick house in a woodsy suburb as Homicide Detective Alex Cross’s algebraic adversary in Along Came a Spider.
James Patterson writes three books a year! He can also write in other era’s than the present day’s crime drama city-scapes.
The Jester, a historical thriller takes place during the Crusades leading the reader on a love-found, love-lost tale from Middle Ages Europe to the Holy Land and back. This was quite a literary departure for the prolific author and worthy of a sequel. I would like to know more about what was experienced by those not Knighted who made up the majority of the armies during the crusades.
James Patterson uses a writing technique of using short chapters of two to four pages to move the story along. This also replicates how action unfolds during a real-life crime, rapidly. Many crime victims have been court-reported as testifying “It happened so fast I didn’t have time to react.”
The Woman’s Murder Club in the 5TH Horseman injects highly-educated and informed amateurs into investigations inquiring into the possibility of medical malpractice on a massive scale at one of San Francisco’s most highly rated (until multiple deadly events, that is) hospitals; letting the reader in on the thought processes involved in sleuthing.
The writing process is much more involved than sitting down with a sharpened laptop at Starbucks with the uncracked egg of an idea, adding the cream of a little Google research and with a subcultural patois achieving realistic dialog and there you have a completed manuscript ready to be FedEx’ed to your eagerly awaiting literary agent.
James Patterson’s 5TH Horseman is enjoyable reading.
