This appears to be the first James Patterson book I’ve read, and I see why his bio in the back of the book is so over the top, starting with “James Patterson has created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today.” If Invisible is representative of all his books, he’s really good! The twist was really well done.
Looking through today’s lens of not having achieved the promised equality between men and women, this jumped out at me:
You could be the most generous and loving father, the most charitable of men, but if your buddies knew about those photographs of barely legal Asian girls you’ve downloaded to your computer, they’d remember that above all else—you’d be the pervert, first and foremost—so you keep it a secret. You could be a faithful wife who would never cheat on your husband, but if he know that you touched yourself in the shower while thinking of the grade-school principal or some movie star, his opinion of you would change, so you hide it.Pages 149–150 of my copy
Men have to look at child porn for people to turn on them, but women just have to masturbate? That passage comes from one of the killer’s journal entries, so I really hope that it’s chosen intentionally to shock, and not Mr. Patterson’s opinion.
Speaking of the killer’s journal, the journal entries are interspersed among the normal chapters and set in a sans-serif font, which I find really jarring in a cheap paperback. It might work on nice smooth white paper, but on rough, yellowish, paperback paper it’s weird to me.
These are minor complaints for the moment. I will likely read more James Patterson. The plot kept me hooked and the reveal was superbly executed.
