A string of brutal bank robberies has recently taken place surrounding Washington D.C. The crimes have been perfect, and the FBI and local police have no clues.

When an elite group of law enforcement officers are put on the case, the name that tops the list is Detective Alex Cross.

Best-selling author James Patterson is back with maybe his best work yet, in Roses Are Red. Published by Little Brown, the book is the sixth in a series centered around Washington D.C. detective Alex Cross.

Alex Cross is not your ordinary literary detective. He is an African-American, well educated and holds a Ph.D. in psychology.

He is also a widower with two young children. His grandmother lives with them and helps out with the children. Unlike most detectives, he tries to solve problems with his mind, not his fists.

Alex Cross has faced some slippery killers, but in Roses Are Red he must defeat the criminal who calls himself The Mastermind. The Mastermind is a man bent on revenge against big business and will stop at nothing to destroy anything or anyone who gets in his path. To make matters worse for Cross, he has to split his time between the case and his daughter, Jannie, who lands in the hospital after suffering a seizure.

The doctors discover that she has a tumor. Only time will tell if Cross can capture the Mastermind and if young Jannie will recover.

Roses Are Red is an excellent book because it keeps the reader in suspense. Patterson continues to keep a style that enables readers to flip the pages quickly.

The dialogue flows and the reader feels and experiences everything that the Cross family feels and experiences. Patterson is the true master of suspense; readers never know what’s going to happen next.

Reading was not always a pleasure for Patterson. He despised reading until he started working nights at a mental hospital. There he had loads of free time and started reading books about the existence of another kind of world.

Patterson’s first book The Thomas Berryman Number won The Edgar Award for best first mystery novel. The award was a bit shocking because the book had previously been turned down by more then two dozen publishers.

Patterson continued to write and publish but didn’t hit it big again until he introduced the world to detective Alex Cross in Along Came A Spider.

“I wanted to create a larger-than-life hero. There are not many larger-than-life African-American heroes. There are a lot of stereotypes, and Alex Cross does not follow these,” said Patterson.

Patterson derived the background for Cross from the time that he spent with a black cook in his grandparent’s restaurant. He spent a lot of time with her and her family.

“I learned about their togetherness and humor, but also about the violence of their neighborhoods and their fear of white neighborhoods, of how they would be treated,” Patterson stated.

Kiss The Girls, by far his most popular book, was next in the series. It was made into a worthy film starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. Along Came A Spider is due out in early 2001. Morgan Freeman will again star as Alex Cross.

“Many writers bitch and moan about Hollywood. The thing is you don’t have to sell your book. You know that there is a fair chance that Hollywood might screw it up. With Kiss The Girls it had a good script, but Morgan Freeman really saved it,” Patterson replied.

Patterson has continued to turn out thriller after thriller. The other books in the Cross series are Jack And Jill, Cat And Mouse and Pop Goes The Weasel. Some of his other works include Hide And Seek, When The Wind Blows and The Midnight Club.

Patterson has come a long way since first writing The Thomas Berryman Number, a road that was not easy. In that time he’s learned a few things that are helpful for aspiring writers.

He’s conscious of the audience, writing for the reader on a one-on-one basis. He doesn’t want the reader to loose interest and put the book down.

He thinks that his success came when he stopped writing sentences and started writing stories.

“It’s very useful for writers to read all sorts of stuff. I’m always open to stuff, challenging myself. A writer is dead when he thinks that he has all the answers. It can happen at any age,” Patterson concluded.

Patterson will be in town on Dec. 1 to sign his new book at Borders in Clayton. The signing starts at 7 p.m. If you’re in the mood for suspense, Patterson is the way to go.