A Review of James Patterson’s Roses are Red | Anu Lal

The unambiguous position James Patterson holds in the minds of the fans of American popular fiction is evident in the fact that his fiction still makes the readers want to read it. The first Alex Cross-novel I read was Double Cross, which was the 13th novel in the Alex Cross-novels. The first Alex Cross-novel, Along Came a Spider, came out in 1993. There are apparently 32 books in the series to date and more are slated to come in the near future. James Patterson, a highly accomplished and popular writer from the US started his publishing career in 1976 with the book The Thomas Berryman Number. The idea here is to show the longevity of his writing career. The success rate of Patterson is not just the longevity of his career, it’s also the grandeur with which he succeeded in the world of writing.

While writing an analysis of Roses Are Red, I must also share how I came across this book since it might contribute to viewing this text in the appropriate light. Roses Are Red is the sixth book in the Alex Cross series. I had picked it up from one of my favourite used book spots somewhere in Calicut, Kerala. I am a big fan of James Patterson novels and also strangely inflicted with the compulsive habit of purchasing books, as many as possible, wherever I found them and whenever I got the opportunity and means to do so. Before COVID, books were cheaper. When COVID came and enveloped our lives and forced us to live inside our homes for almost two years, I had a healthy home library. I realised only then, the true reason behind the compulsive consistent purchase of books. In the post-COVID world books suddenly became very expensive and ever since they have not appeared on my emergency purchase list. Still, the home library could accommodate the task of quenching my reading desire for the next few years. I had been a pack rat with the books. I purchased many books but rarely had the time of convenience to match the reading speed with the speed of buying them. Among my collection Roses Are Red and Pop Goes the Weasel were items from James Patterson that I hadn’t read yet.

I had completed reading the latter the previous year. However, only now I could open the former. Like any James Patterson thriller, Roses Are Red captured me with its simple, lucid, and direct language, clarity in visualisation, ample use of references to make a point clear, and the sheer thrill of every page revealing something new in the story. What’s the significance of the James Patterson brand of writing? Often he is criticised for his overly simplistic narration and any lack of nuances in his writing. There was a bitter verbal feud between Stephen King and James Patterson in the past with King calling Patterson "a terrible writer but he's very successful,” in an interview given to USA Weekend. Having said that, any serious study of world popular literature is incomplete without a close study of James Patterson’s compendium of works.

James Patterson

Most Patterson novels in their language, characterisation, plot, and presentation attempt to satisfy the attention-deficit, pleasure-seeking lay reader. None of the adjectives used here are meant as derogatory. On the contrary, these adjectives represent the nature of the reader of popular fiction today, at least the ones who seek out James Patterson. I took Roses Are Red because I was going through a difficult phase regarding my reading speed. I was overly dependent on my smartphone and it was affecting my capacity to concentrate for longer periods. In effect, I was the same lay reader that I mentioned earlier. I knew the solution: it was reading. This did not mean I was not reading any other book at all. I was reading St Francis De Sales’ great theological treatise Introduction to Devout Life at the time, on the other hand. Since the speed of reading was fairly low, I was having difficulty in completing the book. That’s when I decided to apply the solution that I had always used in similar situations when I had reader’s block. I picked up a James Patterson novel. This time, it was Roses Are Red. I think the reason why I chose this book explains something about its nature and the purpose of why I narrated this experience here.

Short chapters, large fonts, funky villains, and tons of references to other parallel popular songs, movies, books, and products, all combine to make this book a really interesting reading experience. The reader’s investment is the time and the know-how of how language works. That’s all one needs. The rest of the book will unveil in front of our eyes as a quick-paced Hollywood action-crime-drama. Roses Are Red is mostly action-crime-drama. There are thrilling moments but what struck me distinctly is the unveiling drama when the family is at stake. Patterson has his own writer’s repertoire to usher the reader into the state of mind required to introduce a particular character or a situation. It seems that the gear-shifting in certain occasions, the pace shifting of the story, and the way certain emotional scenes are ushered in, just by giving a few special strokes of sentences, bringing the reader properly and completely into the emotional space of the story, is effortless and natural.

The volume I read was published by Headline Feature. There are references to the previous issue of Alex Cross-novel, Pop Goes the Weasel and since I had read it already, it was a pleasant experience to see the characters talk about their past; and knowing it myself, I felt part of their world. One of the most powerful villains in the Alex Cross universe emerges in Roses Are Red. Although the plot is peppered with many twists, what holds the reader is the intensity of the family story that acts as the backbone. Alex Cross and Christine find themselves at a dead end, emotionally. Christine is uncomfortable with Alex’s work as a detective. Alex also admits that he is willing to move out of his field of work if that is required to keep his family safe. The question the novel pursues is whether Alex could do that. When can he stop being a detective and start being Alex, the family man? Did he really love his field of work? One will find the answers in the pages of the novel. Also, we will see how Alex and his family handle an unexpected family emergency regarding his daughter. As I mentioned earlier, Patterson knows how to bring us to a scene involving the family. He will give us the right sentences at the right time to open our hearts just enough to let our own emotional ties with our family ooze out while we read his fiction. Due to this reason, it cannot be denied that the scenes involving the family of Alex Cross are particularly well done in building up emotional tension.

Still, like all of Patterson’s creative universe, this book also has some ethical flaws, especially the glaring one that comes under the purview of marriage. Physical relationships outside marriage are normalised in the novel. This normalisation happens through other characters acknowledging the matter without much moral concern, even when the person involved in one such relationship is one's father after the death of the mother. Dating without sex could have been an option, which could have brought more emotional layers to the novel. However, the two characters enter into a sexual relationship as if coaxed by the author for a better rating of the novel. Once even one of the two characters expresses the discomfort in such a sudden act of intimacy. Later, both of them consent and embrace intimacy, making it apparent that both of them consider their bodies as a source of pleasure, reducing the human being as a useful tool to have some fun. As a reader, I felt they could have waited for marriage. This could have elevated the concluding tragic twist of the novel even further, with the lover pining deeply for his beloved in unfulfilled love. Although Patterson still keeps the story on a good versus evil platform with clear barriers and no ambiguity between good and evil, deeper moral problems rise to the surface. Perhaps, these problems are part of the very fabric of the concurrent societies in the locale where the novel is placed.

Patterson’s characterisation is realistic and this makes them relatable. Regular readers of Alex Cross-novels must be very familiar with Nana Mama and the kids. Since family gets a lot of focus, we get to see Nana Mama, Damon, and Jannie more in this book. Sampson, Betsy, and Kyle are the other characters that play crucial roles in the novel. Due to spoilers, I would not go into the details of these other characters and what happens to them. Roses Are Red offers an unexpected twist at the end, which is very well done from the literary point of view. Roses Are Red is an easily readable crime novel with enough drama to keep us emotionally hooked till the end.

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