BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed by SHERIDAN GRISWOLD
Correspondent | Friday November 20, 2009 00:00

Judge and Jury is just one of James Patterson's over 50 legal thrillers. Exclusive Books has two of his newest ones that arrived last week on sale and about 10 of his 49 other crime novels. Last year I hailed the Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho, (Mmegi, November 28 2008) as one of the most published living authors today, with 100 million books in circulation. Patterson beats him by 50 percent, with 150 million sold. Patterson holds the New York Times bestsellers list record of all time.

Patterson is most famous for his Alex Cross series of 16 novels. He has not had many of his books made into movies, but his first two on Cross made the grade: Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995).

Two new Alex Cross novels have been launched this year: Alex Cross's Trial and now I, Alex Cross on November 16. In the United States this series is the top selling of all crime novels. Those who love John Grisham and Stephen King may be surprised to learn that Patterson outsells both of them combined.

Patterson's other series include: The Women's Murder Club on four friends in San Francisco. With so far nine novels, each numbered in the title, the most recent being 8th  Confession (2009), with 9th Judgement (2010) due on April Fool's Day next year; there are six Maximum Ride novels out with Max making the bookstores this year and Fang to be released in March next year; there are only three so far in the Michael Bennett series, with Run for Your Life (2009) and Worst Case due in February 2010; Daniel X has three novels too, including Watch the Skies (2009) and Demons and Druids (2010); and a new series started this year, Witch and Wizard with the first volume due put next month.

There are at least 25 'standalone' novels, and these include Judge and Jury. The secret to this extraordinary productivity lies in the author's business acumen and literary alignments with many other co-writers who are sworn to secrecy when they sign lucrative contracts. In September, 2009, Patterson signed an agreement with Hachette for 17 more books. He has also successfully entered the foray of books for young adults and children.

Judge and Jury is co-authored with Andrew Gross who has participated in at least five other of Patterson's works.

It holds all the characteristics of his Ultimate Legal Thrillers as they are billed. It entrances and titillates, but as you are reading it, if you note down your predictions as to what comes next, what the various twists and turns may be, who will die and who will live, who will make love and who won't, you will probably be right 99 percent of the time - there is entertainment but not subtly in these books. Patterson is no Agatha Christie, but he is a master of pulp fiction, perhaps excelling Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but maybe not in literary quality. In the end it is always your choice what you want to spend your time reading. Mario Puzo wrote the novel Godfather (1969) that was made into a number of movies beginning with Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola. Godfather II (1974) is one of the most famous movies ever made - it won six Oscars. Patterson knew he could not usurp these masterpieces. So Judge and Jury was really a compromise title for Patterson, as it does not really reflect what the book is about. It is also a Godfather story, the tale of a Mafia Don, The Electrician, a.k.a Dominic Cavello, a mobster who has ruled the underworld in New York City for decades and gotten away with murder over and over again. The Don's cruelty, his sadistic need to inflict pain, to punish and destroy, is unlimited. When the Don has a 'Go-Go' girl who dances in one of his clubs executed for supposedly stealing from him, he says: 'What was once Caesar's, belongs to Caesar'. It turns out Gloria was innocent - she merely had been saving from her earnings for her future.

Judge and Jury is the narrative of Nick Pellisante, an Italian-American and senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who has led the task force tracking The Electrician for many years. He finally has his quarry behind bars. It is Pellisante's voice that dominates the novel.

The book opens with a number of prologues (not just one, but three) in which Pellisante describes how he cracked Cavello and brought him down, but not until after the mobster had shot and killed two of his best agents. Yes, Pellisante is emotional about The Electrician, but then if you were in his shoes you wouldn't remain objective either, would you?

Pellisante's inability to step back from the case causes him to behave in ways that have him removed from it by his superiors. After dozens of more people die, as revenge and obstructionist killings ordered by the Don and carried out by assassins hired from abroad, the FBI agent totally loses his cool. He sends a message to The Electrician, 'F-Y Cockroach. I keep my promises too'. This is what the bulk of the suspense is all about - how Pellisante gets his revenge.

Most of this fast-paced thriller involves Pellisante's actions when he crosses the boundary between law and order and the vigilante activity of a frustrated loner. Having to take up teaching, becoming 'The Professor', delivering a class in ethics, his life is a void without an ethical foundation. The novel might have been called Pellisante the Vigilante. He slowly establishes a friendship with a younger woman, a not- so really young Andie DeGrasse, who survived one of Cavello's atrocities while suffering the greatest loss imaginable, giving her clear motives to seek revenge against The Electrician and his three hired hit men-one of whom is a South African - an Executive Options type. 
This is a novel that will take you to the ends of the earth and to the extremes of human behaviour and suffering. The sex is graphic, but brief. It is the action that sustains the reader. The Judge actually has such a small part in it she shouldn't have been elevated to the masthead.

The Jury is important, but only for establishing the direction of the plot. They are gone by chapter 39. Judge and Jury is told in a number of parts, and 126 short chapters plus a two-part epilogue. For Patterson, 'Revenge is Sweet'.
e-mail sheridangriswold@yahoo.com