anti-recs

Title: Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson
Pages: 380 pages
Rating: Whatever the lowest rating that this group gives is. I'm not sure if it's 0 or 1.
Genre: Courtroom drama/historical novel

This book fails at life.

First of all, the title? False advertising. Alex Cross, Patterson's favorite lead character, is NOT on trial, which was the notion that got me to pick it up in the first place. No, this is allegedly an trial that Cross is writing about, and which supposedly took place during the lives of two of Cross's ancestors.

( Cut for a synopsis full of MAJOR spoilers and discussion of triggery things like lynching and the Klan )

I hate books like this. I hate them because they behave as if the past were just like the present, but with funny clothes, and that everything that was wrong could have been fixed by a good inoculation of 21st century values. And in doing so, they devalue the pain and suffering of the people who actually lived through those times for whom the issues were not quite so simple or clear-cut.

I especially hate such books because they claim to be historically accurate...and people will believe them.


***

P.S. Mods? Could I please have a "James Patterson" tag and a "historical inaccuracy" tag?