ALONG CAME A SPIDER (James Patterson) - May 6/12

Meh. This passable thriller admittedly boasts a few decent twists in its first half - the McDonalds hostage situation, etc - but slows down considerably in its comparatively uneventful second half. Soneji is captured and Cross embarks on a torrid love affair with Jezzie. It's almost like Patterson wanted the book to end at about the halfway mark but felt pressured to make the book longer. (There's just so much padding here.) It's fine, I guess, but yeah, I wouldn't say I had a great time reading this. **1/2 out of ****