Review: Cradle and All

After the less glowing than normal reviews of his latest novel starring Alex Cross, 'Pop Goes The Weasel', James Patterson has decided to rewrite his 1981 novel, 'Virgin' that is totally and utterly out of print.

Kathleen lives in Newport, Rhode Island and Colleen lives in an Irish village. The former is rich, the latter poor. Both are pregnant and when Anne Fitzgerald, a PI with a Master's in Psychology discovers that a miracle could have happened in the world, she finds that these girls could be linked to the apocalypse.

James Patterson is capable of writing some stunning novels and they don't have to star Alex Cross, 'When The Wind Blows' being a good example of this. Here, he has written an interesting novel that reminded me of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, 'End Of Days', where Arnie is a PI struggling against Satan.

That aside, Patterson uses his customary short chapters, sometimes as short as a single page to make it easy for the reader to stop and start. The ending of the novel is interesting and he certainly manages to keep you guessing regarding the identity of the 'true' virgin. The twist that he throws in is also unexpected.

However, I was left expecting something else from this novel. It is interesting and it makes a change from his police thrillers, but I didn't think that his characters were really going anywhere. He went to great lengths to try to make Colleen and Kathleen as human as possible, but I felt that Anne, Justin and the others were somewhat flat. In addition, I felt the novel lacked something into which you could really get your teeth. I can't pinpoint it, but since it's so easy to read, you will get through it in no time and be left wanting more.

Overall, it's an enjoyable read and fans of James Patterson will rapidly devour it. However, he has written better novels and I feel that he may be suffering from the curse of rewriting and remodelling an old story. If you try to keep some of the original, it is not always as good.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

Book Review: Cradle and All