In my ongoing attempts to increase the amount of mystery reviews on this site, I am happy to say that the second James Patterson novel I read was one of the author’s stronger efforts.

            Mary Mary is part of the Alex Cross series of mystery novels, which follows the FBI agent through his career of strange and interesting murder cases. Mary Mary is not the first in the series, though it is easy enough to get into without having read the books that came before it. This particular case finds Alex Cross in California, on vacation with his three children, when a grisly murder of a well beloved Hollywood actress catches his attention. The killer, dubbing herself “Mary Smith” seems to be singling out famous Hollywood mothers and leaves the calling card of three children’s stickers at the scene of every crime. Despite Alex’s reluctance to abandon his family’s vacation, he finds himself inevitably sucked into the mystery and must discover the identity of the murderer before she can kill again.

            I mentioned in my review of When the Wind Blows that James Patterson seems more at home writing his murder mystery novels and that is abundantly clear with this novel. I found Alex Cross’s run through Hollywood to find the killer, much more interesting and well done than the book I mentioned above.

            That said, it has its flaws. I haven’t read much mystery yet, but as I read more and more, I’m starting to see trends. The detective is always super intelligent, handsome and his/her personal life is always a complete wreck, plagued with failed relationships and no-strings-attached sex. I suppose I understand the need for conflict in the main character, but there are other ways to do it rather than the same old bad relationships guy. Although I was pleased to see how the author portrayed Alex’s relationship with his children. I thought it gave the character a sense of warmth that he clearly lacked with women, which helps develop the character overall.

            Like the other James Patterson book I read, I will probably forget a lot of what happened in this book a short way down the road. It isn’t an epic that will stick with you for years to come. However I think I’m starting to see that this is a positive trait for mystery novels. They are meant to be quick reads that get you to have fun trying to guess who the murderer is and if you do ultimately forget about it, then going back and reading it again will provide the same sense of wonder.