The Spire

I truly enjoyed this book! It was just fast enough to keep me interested. Most times I find myself drifting from the speaker but not this time. The reader's voice was perfect for this book. Very enjoyable!

I had not read Richard North Patterson before but enjoyed the suspense of The Spire. Listened to it during a long road-trip and found myself listening to it in the evenings as well.

Even though I guessed the ending, I found myself looking for opportunities to listen to the book right up until the end.

A good mystery; well-developed story.

Can't think of the last time I predicted almost the entire plot of a book by the end of the prologue. A few twists I hadn't anticipated. It was still a very good listen for a solo summer driving trip -- never a dull moment, even if I could see most of them coming!

Richard North Patterson casts his story and characters in sympathetic human forms rarely equalled among his peers. This book is one of his best! The story holds interest all through, not only because of the story itself but because of the wonderful way it is written. His in-depth treatment of well known human condition and emotion is wonderful, adding great joy to the reading of the book. I was sorry to have finished it, and look forward to the next Patterson novel. You will enjoy it too, I'm sure.

At this point there are two other reviews. One is 5 stars and the other 1 star. I'll go half way between. This was an OK mystery but certainly not riveting or a page turner. I figured out the who dunit less than half way through the book. It was more of a narrative than a good mystery. If I were stuck on an island, I would read it for something to do. It certainly wasn't up to his (R N Patterson) standards.

For an author as accomplished as Richard North Patterson, this was unbelievably disappointing. In contrast to the complex and intrictate plots and characters of his early novels, this is like kindergarten. This was a whodunit, whose culprit was obvious from the beginning and for whom the journey to discovery wasn't all that interesting. I listened to the end in the hope that there would be something unexpected, but it was not to be. All that transpired was a series of expository conversations that reveal the identity of the perpetrator. If you've ever heard the expression that someone has "phoned in" their comments, meaning that they barely engaged and were unconcerned with the merits of their contribution, such would be an accurate portrayal of "The Spire". It could have been written in a weekend. I liked this author years ago, but I think he's grown lazy. This is not worth reading or listening to. Unless you're on an island with no other altenative. And even then, consider taking a swim.

I'm on the fence with this book. I like Richard North Patterson books. But I thought this book was a bit slow. It's about a murder that took place in the spire years earlier. And an innocent man is in jail. Darrow becomes an excellent attorney. He used to be friends with the man who's in jail now for the murder of the girl, who was found in the spire. Something about the murder bothers Darrow, so he gets help to open the case up again. So the story begins almost 1/3 way into the book.
I have no complaints about the narrator, he did a good job.

Different from most of Patterson's political mysteries, this was an excellent psychological thriller. I figured out who the bad guy was about half way through the story, but enjoyed the ending anyway.