Serial Killers Abound In ‘Cat’
“Cat & Mouse” by James Patterson (Little, Brown, 399 pp., $24.95)
James Patterson has carved out a name as one of the premier cops-and-sicko-serial-killer writers around, and he does write a mean pen. But cracks appear when you get past that slick writing style.
In Patterson’s new novel, “Cat & Mouse,” Alex Cross provides his comfortable narration as the Washington, D.C., psychologist/homicide detective who specializes in plumbing the dementia of recreational murderers.
A colleague calls him “a sharp police detective but an even better psychologist. His hypothesis and hunches weren’t merely clever and imaginative; they were often right.”
Three books ago (“Along Came a Spider”), Cross put away a sly creep named Gary Soneji. Now that bad boy’s sprung from his maximum security cell, infected with AIDS and a hatred of Cross.
But wait, there’s more. Patterson likes to serve up multiple serial killers, and here he goes again. Besides a shadowy ally of Soneji lurking around the United States, another monster is rampaging across Europe, a fellow called Mr. Smith who snatches ‘em and dispatches ‘em by performing live autopsies on the unfortunate souls. He is so evil that rumor has him an alien, an “evil E.T. Something for ‘X-Files’ fans to contemplate between TV episodes.”
The FBI (despite its mission of enforcing domestic laws) is working this foreign case, and it keeps trying to recruit Cross for his forensic prowess. But Cross resists the invitation, so the narration shifts to Special Agent Thomas Pierce, Cross’s FBI counterpart on the Smith case until Cross can join in.
Way before then, though, matters have taken a couple of ludicrous turns.
Some of these faults are due to sheer sloppiness, such as when Cross’s partner exits a party on foot one night, leaving his car because he’s too drunk to drive, only to return the next morning in the same car. Several clues are heavily inserted, never to reappear.
These supposedly gifted investigators display the collective wisdom of Beavis and Butt-head, twice mismanaging traps for the killers (apparently it was too soon for the book to end) and overlooking screamingly obvious clues, like Mr. Smith’s identity.
Patterson works hard to keep the readers guessing, but only by playing patently unfair. He puts us in the head of both Mr. Smith and his other-life character without revealing a stray thought either way to link them. Even worse, Mr. Smith is simultaneously placed thousands of miles away from the other character, with no later reconciliation as to time and place.
On the other hand, if sloppy writing, factual errors and illogical plotting don’t bother you, “Cat & Mouse” will take you on a breakneck chase after a host of killers. Patterson tells his plot-flawed story in a rich, buttery style conveniently packaged in 130 fun-size chapters. Just remember to check your right-brain at the prologue.
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