I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Kiss the Girls
by
James Patterson
thriller in Hardcover edition that was published by Grand Central Publishing on January 11, 1995 and has 451 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Along Came a Spider, Jack & Jill
Second in the Alex Cross thriller series and revolving around a black psychologist-detective in Washington D.C.
My Take
I’m all the way up to page 7, and all I can think of is GROSS. How do people think like this! It’s disgusting. And they seriously think this is okay???!
He wants to feel real romance. He wants to fall in love. He wants to experience intimacy with someone. He doesn’t think he’s much different from anyone else except that he acts. Excuse me. He wants the romance and intimacy and thinks he’s gonna get it by kidnapping women and holding them prisoner??
It is soo creepy that Casanova has a wife. He talks about loving her, but that her brown hair isn’t as long as one of his victims. Gag. Then his sexual delights. The snake and milk? Gross, disgusting, ick.
Geez, I never thought of that little glitch. That he’s done nothing wrong if a woman makes the choice to go with him. There’s a comment made by Casanova early on that makes me shudder now that I’ve finished reading the story:
“It was all her fault. He would have to change personas now. He needed to stop being Casanova. He needed to be ‘himself’. His pitiful other self.”
I am so impressed by how Alex held himself together. I’d’a gone down there screaming and needing to whale on somebody. It’s been four days since Scootchie went missing and the cops are just now getting around to telling the family? On top of all the other crap they’ve been not doing?
And here we go again. It’s too important for the various agencies to keep their information to themselves. God forbid they should share anything and get further along in this investigation of too many women going missing. Alex has hardly anything and he’s already skipped ahead of most of the cops and FBI. So, do they bring him in from the cold and give him everything they have? *Snicker, snort, guffaw*…*maybe some rolling around on the floor*…*caught between laughing and crying…* What is with these people? Yeah, I know. It’s a book, a story, and you wanna tell me this doesn’t go on in real life?
Then there’s that stupid reporter in LA. She’s more concerned with her bloody book about the case than she is in helping one of its victims or the cops. I am not sorry about what happens to her. Okay, I lie. I do feel bad, but I’m still not sorry. Stupid bint.
The James Bond move was funny.
Patterson’s writing ticks me off. For the most part, he has good flow and his show is okay in this. But how many times must he tell me that Nana Mama has to have the last word? The romance that develops with Alex and Kate is not believable; it’s just suddenly there. Reminds me of Alex and Jezzie in Along Came a Spider, 1.
Oh, please, Alex and Kate are leaping to the conclusions they want to draw from that poster about women and children. And Patterson is throwing in all sorts of extraneous stuff. I don’t know if he needs to pad the story out or what. What was the point of mentioning “No-Heart” Hart if you’re not going to use it?
Then there’s Kate. How incredibly stupid can she be? Sure, I get that she wants to be independent, to not let this keep her from living, but playing it safe until this jerk is caught is not a stupid move. It does not mean that you’re not living. If she intended to live this way the rest of her life, yeah, I’d say she’s wrong. But it’s only until they get these guys. Hasn’t she read the books?
Patterson keeps giving out misleading information. He tells us that the guy is Casanova, no he’s not, he’s a front, he’s a… Fine, I can understand wanting to play out the drama, the tension, but at least use words consistently.
The Story
He only takes extraordinary women. And all they have to do is obey the rules of the house. And accept any attentions he chooses to pay them.
“He was never going to be caught. He had the perfect mask.”
The Characters
Washington D.C.
Dr. Detective Alex Cross is holding up mostly because of his kids, Jannie and Damon. He adores them. Nana Mama is Alex’s grandmother, the children’s great-grandmother. John Sampson is his best friend since childhood and is his partner today. Cilla Cross is Scootchie’s mother and the widow of Alex’s brother Aaron. Charles and Aunt Tia are more concerned relatives.
St. Anthony’s Hospital is…
…a.k.a., St. Tony’s Spaghetti House. Alex has been there too often and knows the nurses including Annie Bell Waters and Tanya Heywood. Rita Washington is a smart but weak pipehead screaming for Marcus Daniels. A little boy his parents used as a “runner”. A little boy who had “adopted” Dr. Alex in his search for help.
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is…
…where Naomi “Scootchie” Cross is a college law student. She’s Alex’s niece, and she’s missing. Mary Ellen Klouk is a law-school friend who reported her missing. Florence Campbell is another law-school classmate. Seth Samuel Taylor is Florence’s cousin, a social worker in the Durham projects, with a chip on his shoulder about being black and downtrodden; he’s also Naomi’s boyfriend. Keesha Bowie is a postal worker Seth and Naomi talked into going back to school. Verda is a waitress-philosopher at Spanky’s. Dr. Louis Freed is a mentor and a former teacher of Seth’s. He’s also a noted expert on the Civil War period, particularly the Underground Railroad.
Dr. Kate McTiernan is beautiful, incredibly smart, and very focused on her medical career. Once she graduates, she plans to go back to her hometown in West Virginia to fulfill a promise to her mother?, grandmother?, Beadsie McTiernan. Carole Anne, Susanne, and Marjorie are her sisters. Kristin is Kate’s twin. Mary and Martin are her parents. All but Carole Anne and their father have died of cancer. Dr. Peter Grant teaches history and was her boyfriend until Katie dumped him.
Bette Anne Ryerson was a mother of two kids and a graduate English student. Kristen Miles. Melissa Stanfield is a student nurse who’s been there nine weeks. Maria Jane Capaldi has been there a month. Christa Akers has been there two months. Anna Miller and Chris Chapin have been a couple for a while now. Jason Snyder had once had a farm.
Browning Lowell is the dean of women and very concerned about Naomi’s disappearance. She considered him a friend and a close advisor. Dr. Wick Sachs, a.k.a., Doctor Dirt, in Durham is a friend of Dr. Rudolph’s and notorious at school. He has a wife who works as a registered nurse and two children: Faye Anne and Nathan.
Durham PD
Detectives Nick Ruskin and Davey Sikes are in charge of Naomi’s kidnapping. Robby Hatfield is the idiot chief of police.
The hospital
Dr. Maria Ruocco treats the patient who got away. Dr. B. Stringer actually thinks he can keep Alex out of the ambulance.
The married Casanova fancies himself to be the great lover, because he can hold an erection for a long time. I doubt the girls he kidnaps see him as any great thing. He insists his captives obey the rules of the house. Or else.
FBI
Neither Special Agent-in-Charge Joyce Kinney nor her partner Agent Mark are happy with Cross or Sampson being at their crime scene. Kyle Craig is a friend of Alex’s. Ronald Burns is the deputy director of the whole FBI. Agents John Asaro, Raymond Cosgrove, and Phil Becton, a suspect profiler, are in LA. Agent James Heekin is brought in from Virginia to interrogate the suspect.
Mike “No-Heart” Hart is a reporter for the National Star.
Los Angeles
Beth Lieberman is a Los Angeles Times reporter the Gentleman Caller has singled out for his diaries. Dan Hills is the editor-in-chief at the paper. Dr. William Rudolph is a plastic surgeon who works at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His father had been an Army colonel who liked to hand out discipline. Dr. Wick Sachs in Durham is a friend of his.
Sunny Ozawa had been 14. Juliette Montgomery will tide the Gentleman over.
The Gentleman Caller is a Jekyll-and-Hyde. Charming until he has you in his power. Then the brutality comes out.
1981, Chapel Hill, NC
Roe Tierney, UNC’s Azalea Queen, and Tom Hutchinson, Duke’s football captain, steal off in a rowboat to make love.
1975, Boca Raton
Michael and Hannah Pierce have two daughters, Coty and Karrie.
The Cover and Title
The cover is extreme with its gold outlined title against a sunrise gradient ranging from a deep red at the top to a deep yellow at the horizon taking up three-fourths of the background and the bottom fourth a dark cluster of trees surrounding a tiny house all lit-up inside, with a lit-up patrol car parked in front.
The title is Casanova’s dream, his desire to Kiss the Girls and find the romance he wants.
