Kiss The Girls-- Good Book from the McDonalds of Authors...

 

Kiss the Girls

A Review by James Romano

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am back, this past year has been a formidable year building my new government affairs business. However, I because I have been focused on building the business, I have neglected my Reading 1000 Books Blog. However, I am back, and better than before, at least that is my plan. I felt I should use my platform to promote books and reading as the county school system where my children attend (Spotsylvania County) is promoting the banning and the burning of books. This seems like a trend throughout the United States, which I abhor. I have a love and passion for books, and I could not ignore the ignorance coming out of two School Board Members. Its one thing to ban books, its another to advocate the burning of them. The Nazis burned books; the Taliban burn books. If a person objects to a book or does not agree with the the subject matter of that book—DON’T READ, THE BOOK. I believe you discuss controversial books with your kids, so they understand your perspective.

 The next stop on the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is the mystery, Kiss the Girls by James Patterson. I must be candid at the beginning; I am not a huge James Patterson fan. The first book of his I read was his partnership President Clinton, The President is Missing. As a person who works in politics for my day job and a supporter of President Clinton, I had high hopes for the book. I was disappointed, the book was just ok. As with most James Patterson books—the story seemed very rushed, where more detail would be welcome. Patterson produces multiple books a year, can they really be all masterpieces?

Kiss the Girls is on the James Mustich 1,000 book list. The novel is the second book in the Alex Cross Series. The inaugural book is in the series is Along Came a Spider, which I read earlier this year (and will review at another time). I felt at the time I should read the first book in the series in case the book would have backstory or details that I needed to know in the second, which I turned out to be correct. I enjoyed Along Came a Spider and until starting Kiss the Girls could not understand why that novel was not on the 1000 book list—however after completely both novels I now understand why Kiss the Girls is included on the 1000 book list. At approximately 500 pages, Kiss the Girls is a longer mystery novel but very entertaining and fast paced. You could read this book in one weekend or during a winter beach vacation.

As I stated before, the story is the second involving Alex Cross, one of the characters that Patterson uses in his different book series. In total there are 29 Alex Cross books, the latest just released. I may read all the Alex Cross eventually, we shall see. Cross is a Washington, DC police detective and psychologist. He is a widower with two small children, living with his grandmother who raised him. They all reside in southeast DC, which at the time the book is set was not a nice place to live (and still really isn’t although gentrification is rapidly changing the face of DC). As a young college student, I came to Washington, DC in 1994 which at the time was the murder capital of the United States. Most of the story, however, takes place in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.

In Kiss the Girls, Alex Cross must confront and capture (or kill) two serial killers—Casanova and the Gentleman Caller. The story ends up taking place on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and on the Duke University campus. The story scared the hell out of me because first, I have three beautiful daughters and Casanova kidnaps college and graduate school young women in that area. Casanova attempts to build a harem with these girls, where he repeatedly psychologically tortures and rapes them. If they step out of line and break the rules, he kills them. Cross’s niece becomes one of the kidnapped victims by Casanova which drawls him into the case. I love the Chapel Hill area and have walked downtown several times so I could see the places mentioned in the book. At the same time on the West Coast, in LA, a serial killer named the Gentleman Caller is raping and murdering women. Alex Cross begins to suspect that Casanova and the Gentleman Caller are somehow either the same person, friends, or competitors.

I have always equated James Patterson books with USA Today or McDonalds. I was not wrong. As much as I enjoyed Kiss the Girls, there were several holes in the story for me. First, I found how Patterson treated the victims has almost unrealistic. Kate McTiernan is a notable example. Kate is beaten and kidnapped by Casanova. He repeatedly rapes her in her room in his house of horrors. Kate is an athlete and eventually uses her skills to eventually escape and run away. However, eventually in quick order, Kate is working the case with Alex Cross and is almost in a sexual relationship with Cross. She is joining in on the case without dealing with the trauma or having counseling. Kate acts like she was not raped. That did not seem realistic to me.

Second, I also feel the story was rushed. Casanova and the Gentleman Caller had a long history which the author does not explore at all. Casanova was killing young girls since he was a teenager in high school in Florida, but nothing of Casanova’s past is discussed again. I understand that the book cannot 600, 700 or 800 pages because people will not read it because they perceive it as too long. Third, Patterson ran out of interest for this book and decided to start working on another when one of the villains from Along Came a Spider broke out of prison, setting up the next Alex Cross mystery.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and the concept of the book with two distinct serial killers.  There is a movie adaptation with Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross and Ashley Judd as Kate McTiernan. Freeman is miscast as Alex Cross because that is not young, built, or lusty. Alex Cross always falls for a woman in his books. To quote James Patterson on the movies of his books, “The Hollywood stuff sucks…the movies are OK at best.”  Not a ringing endorsement if you ask me. If you want a fast-paced mystery, Kiss the Girls is a great read for the beach or for pleasure.

Until next time, Keep Reading My Friends…