Roses are Red,  by James Patterson

D. C. police detective Alex Cross is faced with one of the most vicious criminals he has ever encountered in this continuation of the Cross mystery series.  Known only as the Mastermind, he recruits small-time criminals to rob banks for him and murder the employees--following his elaborately scripted plans.  The Mastermind stays in the background and even the recruits don't know what he looks like or who he is.  After an escalating series of robberies and murders, the Mastermind pulls off a final scheme with a payoff of thirty million dollars.  Alex, working with the FBI, must somehow find the Mastermind but he has very few clues.  On the home front, he must deal with the ending of his relationship with Christine Johnson and the very serious illness of one of his children.  Patterson's last book, Cradle and All, was a rather unfortunate retread of his first novel so it's nice to see him back on track again.  This is a great read with a knockout surprise ending.
 

Buried Evidence, by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

Lily Forrester is a Santa Barbara district attorney with a lot of problems.  Her ex-husband is a drunk and he has just run over and killed a college student in a hit-and-run accident.  A violent criminal who raped Lily and her daughter has been paroled and is out for revenge against both of them.  If that isn't enough, six years ago Lily shot and killed a man she mistook for the rapist.  She has managed to cover up her crime but the police have re-opened the investigation after her ex-husband tipped them off in an effort to help his cause.  Sounds like the makings for a great thriller but I have to say I wasn't too thrilled.  The plot with the rapist out of prison and stalking Lily and her daughter did not provide the spine chilling suspense I expected.  In the matter of the murder she committed, I envisioned Lily being put on trial and fighting for her life but her case ends up being settled before trial.  Where's the suspense there?  In the book notes Ms. Rosenberg thanks her "new" editor so I assume she changed editors with this book.  Unfortunately, the result is a book that is not up to the standards of her previous ones and the editor deserves no thanks.  I got through it but I was mentally using a red pencil most of the time.
 

The Night Listener, by Armistead Maupin

Armistead Maupin, author of the Tales of the City series, returns with his first novel in eight years and introduces us to Gabriel Noone.  Noone is a San Francisco writer who has a late night radio show called "Noone at Night" that features his stories of gay relationships.  As the novel begins, Noone is going through a painful separation from Jess, his longtime lover.  The separation has left him with writer's block  and he is unable to do his radio show.  When he is at his lowest point, he is asked to read a book that is about to be published that was written by a thirteen-year-old boy named Pete Lomax.  Pete had been abused most of his life by his parents.  Now that they are in jail and he has been adopted, he has written about the experience with the help of his foster single mother, Donna Lomax.  Gabriel is so taken with the book that he calls Pete and they begin a long-distance friendship.  Things are going well until Jess, who has talked with both Donna and Pete, makes the observation that Donna and Pete sound like the same person.  Is there really a Pete who has written this remarkable book or is it all just an elaborate hoax?  Gabriel sets out to find the truth and along the way is changed forever by what he discovers.  The eight year wait was worth it.
 

Dr. Death, by Jonathan Kellerman

Dr. Alex Delaware, the psychologist who occasionally assists the L.A. police in murder investigations, is back in this latest Kellerman mystery.  Alex is contacted by his homicide friend, Milo Sturgis, when Dr. Eldon Mate is found murdered.  Mate is known as "Dr. Death" because he has been responsible for dozens of assisted suicides.  Now, someone has put Dr. Death himself to death in a very gruesome manner and Alex is called in to consult on the psychological aspects of the case.  His assignment is complicated by the fact that he has been treating the daughter of one of the prime suspects in the case.  Her mother committed suicide with the apparent assistance of Dr. Death and her father, a wealthy developer, is suspected of hiring a hitman to kill Mate.  Several other suspects also emerge, including Mate's mentally unstable estranged son and a serial killer who preys on sick or dying women.  Alex and Milo have a daunting challenge finding the real killer but they're up to it.  The Delaware series has been an enjoyable one but this latest installment will not rank as my favorite.  It was good but too many of the characters were unsympathetic and it was hard to care very much about what happened to them.
 

From the Corner of His Eye, by Dean Koontz

In 1965, in Bright Beach, California, a remarkable, unusual boy named Bartholomew is born.  In San Francisco, an equally remarkable, unusual girl named Angel is born.  Both children come into the world in very difficult circumstances, are lucky to survive, and are destined to cross paths in the future.  On the same day that Bartholomew is born, an evil, murdering man living far away in Oregon learns that he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew.  He has little other information to work with but he sets out on a search to find this "Bartholomew" and kill him.  Sounds like the makings of a typical Koontz novel, doesn't it?  Well, this novel is so much more than what you might expect from this author mostly noted--unfairly, I think--for terror.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything else without spoiling the story--and I hate when a reviewer spoils a book or film by saying too much.  I can say that something totally--and I mean totally--unexpected happens in one of the beginning chapters and the book takes off from there with a tale filled with astonishment, wonder, suspense, humor, heartbreak, and joy.  And, yes, some terror thrown in for good measure.  Koontz has always been one of the most interesting and inventive novelists and I find he's just getting better with each new book.
 

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