Suspense novels have always seemed to be literature for those suffering from a short attention span.

With his latest book, Violets Are Blue (Little, Brown and Company), James Patterson has taken this to a new height.

Patterson's novels always have been a little rushed. They're generally very enjoyable, but with chapters that normally hit triple digits, the books seem to be targeted to the attention-deprived.

Violets Are Blue contains 116 chapters in just 393 pages, which makes for pretty quick and hurried reading. It also makes for a novel with very little literary value.

The novel is Patterson's seventh to focus on Washington, D.C. detective Alex Cross. Cross is faced with two cases.

The first involved several murders across the country, which appear to have been perpetrated by modern-day vampires.

Of course, in Patterson's typical fashion, the reader is able to view the murders from both the eyes of the killers and Cross.

The only mystery left to the reader is who is controlling these killers. This plot device has worked better for Patterson in the past, but it's still relatively effective here.

This story is fairly interesting and fast-paced. It was able to maintain the interest of this reader for the majority of the book.

The only problem was the final showdown with the killers, which was incredibly anti-climactic. After more than 300 pages building up to it, one would imagine Patterson would spend more than one short chapter on discovering the truth about the killers.

The second plot involves the Mastermind, the villain from Patterson's previous book, Roses Are Red.

Most of Patterson's readers will already know the identity of the Mastermind since it was revealed at the end of Roses Are Red.

For those who do not know, it should become apparent rather quickly as Patterson peppers the story with hints. Cross, of course, does not notice any of the hints and is completely stunned when he realizes who the Mastermind is.

The second plot suffers from the same problems as the first one. Although the build-up is good and very interesting, the climax is incredibly disappointing.

Patterson has been working toward the moment that Cross and the Mastermind will come face to face for seven novels and this is all he can come up with?

It is just stunning that he can create such interesting stories and characters and let them fizzle out at the end.

The two stories are very interesting separately. The problem arises when the reader is bounced back and forth between the stories from chapter to chapter like the ball in a frenzied game of tennis.

Maybe if Patterson could gain a little more focus and stick to his stories for more than three pages at a time, the reader would be able to get a foothold in the story.

All in all, Violets Are Blue is probably the worst of the Alex Cross novels.

Cross is still a very intriguing character and his story is still worthwhile, but this novel finds the author packing far too much information into too little a space.

As the novel ends it is unclear if this is the last we will see of Alex Cross.

His fans must remain hopeful that this is not the case.

It would be sad to see him retired after this harried outing.