Book Review: Kiss the Girls

Spoilers!

Alex Cross is back for another go of “hunting monsters” in James Patterson’s second book in the Cross detective series, 1995’s Kiss the Girls. The book sees Cross, a Black detective and psychologist in Washington D.C., who dotes on his family, return to the South to hunt a serial killer (or two?), evoking feelings about America’s greatest original sin (slavery). Of course, it’s not merely that there is a serial killer loose in North Carolina killing college-age girls, but that his niece, Naomi, has specifically been kidnapped seemingly and may be the serial killer’s next victim.

The Durham Police Department isn’t the only department on the case; the FBI is also involved citing multiple jurisdictions where the self-named Casanova is “hunting.” Those jurisdictions encompass California, where another self-named Gentleman Caller is hunting, and Durham. The police, FBI, and Cross aren’t sure if Casanova and the Gentleman Caller are one in the same, one-upping each other, or working together in some sick game.

One of Casanova’s latest would-be victims is Kate, a doctor and Karate aficionado. She’s kidnapped and taken to Casanova’s “house of horrors” in the woods and brutally assaulted and raped. Through the ordeal, she learns more women are being held captive at the house, including Naomi. Somehow, when Casanova comes calling again, she’s able to put her Karate and strength to use and escape. Eventually, after psychologically recovering enough, she’s able to relay to Cross that Naomi and other women are being held at this “house of horrors.”

It’s intimated early on that Casanova, given his knowledge of medicine, very well could be a doctor. Or that because of his seeming knowledge to commit these “perfect crimes,” he may be a fellow police officer. Patterson drops a few red herrings in both directions throughout the book. Turns out, there are two distinct serial killers, but they are “twinning,” to use Cross’ psychological terminology. The Gentleman Caller and Casanova have known each other since the 1980s and are indeed playing a game of “kiss the girls,” i.e., to “collect” beautiful women and rape, torture, and kill them. (As an aside, if you took a drink every time Patterson mentioned a woman’s attractiveness, not even from the point-of-view of the killer, you’d have alcohol poisoning by the end of the book.)

Cross hops over to California to lend his expertise to the psychological profile on the Gentleman Caller and pretty soon, him and the FBI zero in on him at his own “house of horrors” in the woods. They interrupt one of his kills, but he’s nonetheless able to escape and go on to Arizona to kill another woman.

Att his point, let me just go ahead and point out the plot holes I have with the book:

• Kate escapes the “house of horrors” by jumping into a river and later being found by two boys in said river. Why wasn’t that area where she was discovered search extensively sooner to find the house? Cross and his D.C. partner and best friend (his “twin” in a positive way), Sampson, don’t decide to do this until the climactic moments of the book. Indeed, though, this is where the original sin of slavery and the Underground Railroad come into play since the “house of horrors” sat on such an old property in the woods. So, that was a neat tie-in.
• It makes zero sense for the survivor of Casanova, who was brutally assaulted and raped, to start going on surveillance watches in California with Cross, but she does!
• Worse than that, is that Kate, again, someone recently assaulted and raped, wouldn’t already be jumping into a seeming relationship with Cross, no matter how vulnerable she’s feeling. Cross, for that matter, shouldn’t be getting so close to the prime witness in his case! It also belied how proud he was initially that they were being “’90s friends.” Friends don’t kiss and cuddle …
• Early on when Cross comes to North Carolina, Casanova leaves his “calling card” at Cross’ hotel room. Nothing is ever followed up with fingerprinting or trying to ascertain the source. Not that this killer likely would have left trace, but still, all leads are worth pursuing when you have nothing else in the way of physical evidence.
• During those surveillance runs, they literally catch the Gentleman Caller on a hot microphone talking to himself about cutting up a woman who got away from him, but Cross and the FBI still seem uncertain he could be their man!
• When the FBI and Cross go in on the Gentleman Caller at the cabin, how did the FBI team not have the jeep covered to prevent him from getting away? Because he does exactly that. A terribly botched apprehension scenario, which again, led to a woman’s death in Arizona and ultimately, Kate being attacked again.
• Cross and the FBI start searching Gentleman Caller’s real apartment trying to find clues. What about his “house of horrors” cabin where you found a woman about to be murdered?! What ever happened to her, anyway? Is she okay?
• Casanova throws a red herring at us, the reader, and at Cross, by setting up a local pornography and philandering fiend, Sachs, with being Casanova. Thinking he is, Cross just casually breaks into his house. What?! Then, he even admits to that to Sachs in an interrogation. If the whole Sachs case isn’t thrown out … (Which, we never learn if it is, even once it’s clear he’s not Casanova).
• We learn Casanova and the Gentleman Caller are together because at some point, they talk on the phone to each other. For genius criminal minds, that’s perhaps the stupidest thing to do.
• Let’s go back to Kate. The moment she escaped and was in the hospital, she should have had around-the-clock police protection. That she didn’t is inconceivable (but plot convenient). Not least of all because the killer she escaped from is still at large and they suspect that killer of working with another killer! They also exposed Kate via a press conference after her escape. Not shockingly, Casanova comes back for her, and Kate is able to fend him off, but is surprised from behind by the Gentleman Caller. Then, believe it or not, while Kate is comatose in the hospital, the Durham Police stop protecting her again and Cross doesn’t seem concerned, either.
• The next biggest red herring Cross takes on, literally, is Detective Sikes of the Durham Police Department. He suspects Sikes because he’s a cop and didn’t let him or the FBI know that he’d investigated the original murders in 1981 that brought the two killers together. When Cross follows him to a woman’s home, Sikes surprises him with a gun to the head. They fight until it’s learned Sikes is cheating on his wife, not prowling for a kill. What?! Why did Sikes pull a freaking gun on a fellow cop and then go to the mats fighting him?
• Finally, as an aside at the end of the book, Patterson tells us that Gary Soneji, the psychopathic kidnapper from the first novel, 1992’s Along Came a Spider, escaped. Sure, he escaped federal prison. This isn’t unheard of, but it’s extremely rare and most are caught shortly thereafter. By the way, it’s interesting that two books in a row, all three criminals have been psychopathically focused on committing the “perfect crime.”

The thing is, despite all of these criticisms and nitpicks of the plotting (and the Cross characterization in particular), I devour Patterson’s books because they’re meant to be breezy, fun reads. And they are! I just wouldn’t mind if he buttoned up some of these issues.

Oh, and Casanova turned out to be Sikes’ partner, Detective Ruskin. Which, by the way, Kate was used as “bait” for Casanova’s revenge (she was there with Cross and two FBI agents, but still). That’s the third time in the book she was exposed to danger after originally escaping Casanova. Agh!

But yes, I’ll be reading the next book in the series, Jack & Jill. Ha.