Book #34: Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a completely blind read, as I wasn't familiar with James Patterson's Alex Cross books before. I would definitely read more, but should go back and read from the beginning, as there were some plot threads that would have probably made more sense.
This novel starts off looking like a straightforward murder mystery; an innocent man is being convincted for a triple homicide that he didn't commit, only the audience is told in chapter 2 precisely who the real killers are.
At first, I thought it was a bit strange that the reader was allowed to be one step ahead of the novel's hero, but then the narrative developed into a larger piece of conspiracy fiction, involving a whole series of murders committed by three trained assassins who then framed others, all of which was linked to the Vietnam War.
The best thing about this book was its commentary on Vietnam; most of my knowledge of this war is from films, but my understanding (certainly from watching Full Metal Jacket and Platoon) is that American soldiers spent a lot of their time during this war killing civilians, and the book mentioned these atrocities freqently.
The character of Alex Cross, who narrates all of the chapters that he appears in, felt well-rounded, and easy to engage with and the book also involved some subplots involving his personal and family life that I found equally enjoyable. I also liked the fact that the book was very readable, and simple to understand, so I was able to get through it relatively quickly.
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