Hard as nails

Tough, high-testosterone stuff, gripping

Ryan has come up with a big-balled romp that's just dying to be read in the company of a beer, a sun lounger and a holiday in the Mediterranean

David Levien has placed himself among the best writers in the field

James Patterson is The Boss. End of.

I wrote, "Along Came a Spider is the best thriller I've come across in many a year. It deserves to be this season's no. 1 bestseller and should instantly make James Patterson a household name." A household name, indeed.

Every once in a while a writer comes along and fundamentally changes the way people read. He or she is so bright, so innovative, so industrious that what they envision and create becomes the measure by which all others are judged. In 1993 one such writer - James Patterson - began to do just that ... James Patterson is the gold standard by which all others are judged.

[Alex Cross] has become one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, a character for the ages.

Alex Cross is a legend.

Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind.

Patterson knows where our deepest fears are Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried... there's no stopping his imagination.buried... there's no stopping his imagination.

Patterson is in a class by himself.

Sharp, sassy and guaranteed to send shivers down your spine, this is a tense thriller

Cross is one of the best and most likeable characters in the modern thriller.