Step on a Crack |
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James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge
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Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0755330390
Pub: Headline Book Publishing
Pub date: 2007-02-08
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3748
Reader Reviews:
Step on a Crack (0/0 people found this helpful)
This book is not filled with innuendo, which I've found in a lot James Pattersons books recently. The hostage situation is gripping, although for me, the ending was a little too late or a little too short. I felt the end happened really quickly, without building any tension. A little disappointing. A good book which I'm sure any James Patterson fan will enjoy as I certainly did, even with the short ending.
Check the system (0/2 people found this helpful)
If you can only do it by cheating you are only fooling yourself!
Picking up on the comment below re duplicaed review - because I am not purchasing an item from Amazon in order to get the privilege to reply in the 'comments section' of a review facility!
Yet another bookjacket blurb and duplicated review from this reviewer, with, remarkably 2 votes already!
Sorry this is how the so-called top 100 reviewers cheat - increasing their numbe of posted reviews overall by duplication - even the audio books and foreign language publications read the same - Yawn.
Then they log in to multi-user accounts to vote for their own reviews!
It is purely a numbers game and most of them are doing it to get up the league table, for some sad reasons and we really should feel sorry for them, no doubt.
You simply need to keep an eye on the league table and a handful of the participants for a very short period to get the real picture and it is not about encouraging a reader to buy an item! It is simply cheating, maybe even fraudulent - check out another comment on the mediocre 'Caithness Paperweights', for more feelings about this very subject!
In the meantime the more poeple who latch onto this and complain through the 'posting a review' system (you don't need to register a credit card or a real name to post a review) the better and maybe Amazon will sort out the garbage and oust the lot of them!
I wish he would slow down and concentrate! (2/2 people found this helpful)
Another disappointment from the James Patterson school.
He is capable of so much better, as he has proven in the past - instead of which, he keeps producing these joint efforts - the earlliest of which worked; however, recently they have tended to be huge disappointments.
I have taught children like James - children who churn out loads of junk in the vain hope that quantity will be considered superior to quality.. Eventually they learn - however, james has the advantage of earning a fortune for every piece of junk that he turns out.
The only way that he will learn is if we all start to boycott his books and stop buying them as soon as they come out. Perhaps we need to wait for the cheap paperbacks, then perhaps we won't feel so let down!
"I'm gonna let you buy your way out" (1/2 people found this helpful)
With this book, Patterson adds another author to his list of collaborators, and the result is pretty encouraging. Ledwige's influence on the novel results in a plot that even though not overly realistic, keeps us engaged in the story until the last page. On top of this, certain elements, like the busy family life of the main characters, give the story a nice balance between the police case at hand and the everyday problems that each of us face.
Everything starts when the Neat Man participates in the murder of former first lady Catherine Hawkins. The key to this event is that everyone assumes it was an accident, since she died from an allergic reaction to peanuts. The fact that no one suspects foul play is crucial for the next step of the plan, which is so craftily and precisely laid out that the police will be constantly on their toes.
Catherine's funeral attracts a variety of wealthy an influential people to St. Patrick's. When a group of men take control of the church, and keep a select number of hostages, the police and FBI are thrown into one of the most difficult sieges in history. The fact that the ringleader of the kidnappers, the obnoxious Jack, seems to always be a step ahead, does not simplify things. Mike Bennett is an NYPD detective that works as a negotiator and is involved in the situation from the start. But this is only part of Mike's problems, since his wife has terminal cancer, and he has to take care of his ten kids. Yes, you read right, it is not a typo; ten kids. Imagine that!
Even though the plot has some portions that are unrealistic, this novel does not have the problems other Patterson's books have had in the recent past. The story is cohesive and flows well, keeping us entertained throughout its duration. I admit that the idea of the ten kids may be a little over the top, but I enjoyed how this worked together with the rest of the story. Also, in this novel I found something that I thought Patterson had lost and that I remembered from the early Alex Cross books: clever, ruthless and believable villains. Finally, the hostage situation, allowed the authors to spend some time on character development, which in my opinion has been one of the main faults in some of Patterson et al latest works, like "The 6th Target".
This is not a literary masterpiece, but if you have read Patterson before you know that this is not something the author is shooting for. What this novel delivers is a fun and enjoyable experience, and that is enough to make it worth reading.
Better than recent output might lead you to expect (2/4 people found this helpful)
After a whole string of dreadful collaborations, I wasn't expecting much from this novel. But Patterson has found either (a) his old form or (b) a better co-writer. He's not all the way there yet, but you can see in this book the skills of misdirection, suspense and tight plotting that made his first few books worth shouting about. His characters remain largely forgettable, without real depth, but this book represents a huge leap back in the right direction.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Crime, Thrillers & Mystery -> Thrillers
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General