Review: Cross Kill by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Along Came a Spider killer Gary Soneji has been dead for over ten years. Alex Cross watched him die. But today, Cross saw him gun down his partner. Is Soneji alive? A ghost? Or something even more sinister?  

Nothing will prepare you for the wicked truth.

The story begins with Alex Cross and his partner John Sampson working at a community soup kitchen.  Shots ring out and kitchen workers are injured.  In tending to them, the two men are also attacked by the shooter.  Sampson is shot in the head, and Cross in the chest, protected only by his Kelvar.  Even more of a blow, Cross sees the shooter as a man whom he saw die over ten years previously (for perspective, Along Came a Spider was the first Alex Cross book, while this is #23.5).  While Sampson fights for his life in the hospital, Cross hunts for the shooter.  He doubts his eyes and his memories, trying to find answers about one of the worst criminals he has encountered in his long career.

Story comments:

This is one of the first Alex Cross stories I've read (or listened to). I think it might even be the first, though it seems hard to imagine, as many Cross stories as Patterson has written.  Maybe I'm just familiar with the few which have been made into movies.  At any rate, there it is. 

Book Shots are novellas, really, designed to be single-sitting (or single-day) reads.  They are written to fall in-between the full-length novels in the series.  This one, for example, is listed as #23.5 in the Alex Cross Series.  In terms of listening length, I listened to the audiobook during my commute to work, and it took me less that a week.

Part of the story centers on Sampson's shooting and recovery. It honestly felt like those sections dragged a little, lots of hospital visits and emotional build-up over whether Cross would lose his childhood friend and partner.  Good emotional build-up (especially in such a short book), but not having read others in the series, I just didn't have the same emotional investment in John Sampson that others might have. 

I also was probably more interested in the mystery of the man rising from the dead to shoot at Cross and his partner. That side of the story really drew me in. There were so many questions and potential twists and clues and suspense, that the big reveal at the end was a bit of a let-down, quite honestly. The solution seemed a bit simple and rushed, but it is only a BookShot after all.

My BIGGEST frustration was by far the huge cliffhanger! I don't mind books in a series carrying subplots over between books; characters do have to develop, after all, and some series create an archnemesis (a Big Bad, to quote Buffy) or extreme set of circumstances, which may take several books to solve or overcome.  I am not, however, a fan of huge cliffhangers where you MUST go out and get the next book to find out what happens in the main plot. Just makes it feel like you've read an excerpt of a book, and not a book in itself (at least in my opinion).  If you don't mind these, or are already well-invested in Alex Cross and his world, then you probably won't mind the cliffhanger nearly as much as I did.  For me, it was almost a, "Wait, what just happened??" moment.  At which point the audiobook credits began playing...

Audiobook comments:

Ruben Santiago-Hudson does a good job putting emotion into the character, and I enjoyed listening to him. Of course, Alex Cross now looks like Capt Roy Montgomery (Castle) in my mind, but that's a minor issue. My only real complaint was that they put in sound effects for the sirens, gunshots, etc.  Other books I've listened to just had the narrator say something ("bang!", "crack!", etc.).  The actual noises were very startling, especially if I was listening as I did something else (driving, running, etc.).

Overall comments:

As I said, this is my first Alex Cross book.  I'm interested to read more, starting at the beginning.  Even though I know Soneji died in that book, I'm interested in Patterson's writing now.  The suspense and tension he built in the story was very well done.  My minor complaints are really partially my own fault - who starts a series 23 books in, after all?  The biggest reason I gave it only three stars was the cliffhanger at the end.  It'd probably have another star from me if that wasn't there (side note: the plot twist was a good one; I just wish it had been developed and resolved in this book instead of the next).  If you're already sucked into Alex Cross's world, or if you don't mind huge cliffhangers in your books, then you'd probably not mind that nearly as much as I did.

Now this was unexpected

Over the last couple years, I've started getting into Geocaching.  For those who don't know that hobby, it's like an Easter egg hunt for adults, assuming the Easter bunny is rather quirky and (sometimes) sadistic in his hiding spots.  Players use GPS handheld devices to locate the caches (the Easter eggs), and with the advent of smartphones, everyone has a handheld GPS now.  The caches can be big, like an ammo can or lunchbox.  Birdhouses are common too.  Or they can be small, like a film canister.  Or they can be evil, like a bolt that's not really a bolt, but a magnetic hiding spot tucked underneath a bench.  Caches will all have a log for people to sign once they've found the actual cache, and you can record your finds online too.  They can be very involved too.  Some are puzzles that you have to solve in order to find the coordinates to the actual log.  Others can be multiple steps, finding one cache that leads you to the next, which leads you to the actual log.  Like I said, if the Easter bunny was quirky and sadistic.

I've enjoyed it though, because they get you looking at the places around you in a little bit different way, noticing things you might not.  Or making average places (like boring suburban Central Texas) seem a little more interesting.  Caches might be up hiking trails or in the middle of a shopping mall.  Often people will place them near landmarks or points of interest or scenic views.  Pretty fun to do as you're travelling about.

And now all of this has been background leading up to the point of this post: the Berlin Wall. 

No, seriously.

Geocaching does challenges every so often, asking players ("cachers") to find caches with x-many favorites (like Facebook Likes for geocaches), or find one that's a puzzle cache, or whatever.  This time it was finding one that had a certain number of favorites.  Near where I live in Honolulu, this was the closest.  It was also really cool.

Honolulu Community College has a piece of the original Berlin Wall.  The piece of the wall is incorporated into a memorial, the Berlin Wall Freedom Monument.  The wall was erected, protected by glass, with concrete wall sections extending out from either side, to give a greater impression of what it must have once been.  A bit of trivia, they oriented it the way it was in Germany: plain side facing east and the graffiti covered side facing west. When they set up the memorial, this was only the third piece of the wall in North America, so something very unusual.  And it's still there on the HCC campus, tucked away between academic buildings behind the library. 

And on a more somber note, in the 20-odd years since it was set up, the Freedom Monument has expanded.  Right near the wall in the same little lawn, is a memorial to the 9-11 Trade Center attack, with pieces of rubble from the towers and from the Pentagon. 

So, if you're in the area, it's worth the little detour as you drive to Pearl Harbor from Waikiki (or whatever other tourist stops you're hitting).  And I wouldn't have found it if someone hadn't hidden a cache there!

And things are finally settling down. Maybe??

This year has been a crazy one, even by our standards.

There was the Big Move, of course, and finally graduating with my Master's.  A new niece was born in the summer.  These all would be enough to make any year pretty eventful.  But of course, things didn't stop there.

It has also been the Year of Broken Things.  In order:

• I broke my toe the week before we moved.  Not fun spending the first several months of our time in HI in a boot or walking shoe.  Besides being hot, it also meant being unable to hike or go to the beach (walking on sand is hard!!) or spend time just walking about playing tourist :(
• Two computers have died and been repaired (both thankfully within warranty, but one did die the DAY before we flew out from TX - I nearly cried)
• My car arrived in HI and immediately needed repairs
• The cat is starting to have some age-related problems (manageable, but still...). 
• And the stress caused my eyes to start showing their age.  Apparently I've always been far-sighted and just never needed glasses before, but the stress of this summer was the breaking point.  When I can't focus on the stitches on my knitting needles, that's not good.

And yes, this was all surrounding the move out to Hawaii and Zach being immediately posted to Korea for an extended temporary duty (he'll be back in Spring).

And all this has been in addition to the craziness outside in the world.  Several of my favorite actors have passed away this year, as well as a favorite children's author (Anna Dewdney, of Llama Llama fame), and of course the election with it's toxic build-up and post-election fall-out.  The world outside has been a pretty stressful place too.

I'm not trying to sound negative.  Lots of good has happened this year as well.  The move, graduation, new niece, new job (actually in my field!!).  I've had a bit of chance to explore, get involved, meet new people.  A chance to travel out to visit Zach in Korea too (still labeling pictures from that trip).

So, if anyone was wondering why I haven't been writing much this year, this is why.  Life has been quite a lot this year.  Every time I sat down to write here, I was either too tired to think coherently, or I'd been on my own too much and it felt like everything I was thinking was just pouring out, and it felt like I was oversharing.  It made it hard to find that balance where I was just comfortably writing. 

Hopefully 2017 will be a bit calmer and a bit saner, but still with some adventures to be had. 

Happy New Year everyone!

PS - one thing they don't tell you about moving to Hawaii is the extreme love of fireworks!  We had 6 hours of fireworks going off in the neighborhood yesterday!!  Not fireworks shows, just firecrackers in the neighborhood - and we live in a quiet neighborhood!  Started about 7-7:30ish as the sun went down, and was still going at least until 1:30am when I finally was tired enough to just pass out, despite the noise!  Scruffy and I BOTH slept in this morning - way too late for us.

New Mexico: White Sands National Monument

Mom and Zach and I ventured out to the desert at the end of March for a marathon event (because what this spring needed was a major race and a whirlwind trip out west, right?).  We honestly had a lot of fun, though. 

The first stop we had was at the White Sands National Monument.  This is an interesting little geologic site and worth the stop.  It's not a national park, just a monument, so no wide-ranging trails or backcountry hiking like Yosemite or Zion or anything.  But it's still a pretty bit of hiking, and definitely a good day trip if you're in the Alamogordo or Las Cruces areas.  Be sure to check the park's website beforehand though - weather can make a difference to access, especially in the summer.  As can the firing schedule of the nearby White Sands Missile Range.  How many National Parks can you think of that have to worry about that?

The titular White Sands refer to the gypsum dunes which cover a large portion of the park.  These dunes are in fact the world's largest gypsum dune field.  The gypsum has eroded over the years from large selenite crystals which formed in an ancient lake which once filled the Tularosa Basin (the region where the park now sits).  Selenite is one of the crystalline forms of gypsum, and as it eroded away, the now-granular gypsum began being picked up by the wind and moved around.  (Bit of trivia - the winds need to be at least 17mph to pick up the grains of gypsum).  The winds pick up the grains and blow them into dunes, which change shape over time.  Since the winds are pretty steady from one direction, the dune field is actually gradually moving.  Dunes in the center of the field can move 30-35 feet in a year, and build up to 60 feet high.  Dunes at the edge of the field move more slowly, meeting resistance from vegetation at the edge of the field.

You can learn more about the geology which created these amazing dunes on the National Park Service Nature Site or on the White Sands website itself.  And of course read about the plants and animals that have evolved to survive in such an unique environment too.  But that's my science background talking - you could just enjoy the hike and pretty pictures too ;)

The gypsum comes from Alkali Flat and Lake Lucero, areas where the selenite is now exposed to erosion.  An overlook on the edge of Alkali Flat is the turnaround on one of few trails in the park, the appropriately named Alkali Flat Trail. We're standing at the turnaround in the picture above (I'm pointing to where we are on the trail map).  The trail is definitely one to do when you're at the park.  It's about 4.5-5 miles, just walking through the dunes.  As mentioned, the dunes are always blowing around, always shifting, so there is no actual path through them.  You follow a series of orange signposts, like the one next to us.  Sometimes you'll be able to see the next 4 or 5 posts across the dunes ahead of you.  It's a very different little trail.  Be prepared for lots of wind and exposure (I wouldn't want to do this trail in the summer heat) and definitely bring water.

The park regularly holds moonlight hikes and bike rides along Dunes Drive.  Can you imagine these vast stretches of white sand in the moonlight?  Must be gorgeous!

 

An unusual activity in the park is sledding on the dunes.  And it's totally legit!  They even sell saucer sleds in the park gift shop!  (We just borrowed the pair we used.  It was a wee bit too windy that morning to spend tons of time playing on the sleds.)  The gypsum sand has different qualities than quartz sand (besides the color), and the dunes are very fine and soft, yet stable.  Which makes them good for sledding, as it turns out. It's not the fastest sledding you'll ever do, but the dunes aren't that steep either.  Of course, you can still get hurt, so use caution, be safe not reckless, watch where you're landing, yadda yadda yadda.
Also be warned that the sand, being as fine as it is, will be in your clothes and shoes for WEEKS!  Zach was changing his shoes last week, and I looked at him and the clouds of something around his feet, asking "What is that?"  "White Sand."  Three weeks later!!

And yes, I did sled too.  I took pictures as they sledded, then they filmed me going down when I took my turn.  Whee!

 

And a last little thing.  These are the picnic shelters below.  With the winds coming pretty much unidirectionally, all the picnic shelters had these walls on one side.  They look like little space ship pods, don't they?  Especially in the areas where there were more of them clustered together, they had this kinda sci-fi sort of feel.  One of those random little things about the park  :)

 

To close, here is the only picture I have of all three of us in the park.  We're all there, even if just in silhouette :)

Granny's Blanket

There is only one other knitter in Zach's family: his grandmother, whom I was able to meet only a few times, unfortunately.  Between all the stories I've heard from the family, she seemed to have been a pretty incredible lady.  Among her many talents, she also knit and crocheted.  So, when the family was cleaning out her things a few years ago, they set aside her knitting and crocheting stuff for me to sort through.  Stored in with all her needles and yarns were patterns and pattern notes that she'd made.  One of these was the blanket that she made for Zach and his siblings and cousins.  Not that it was one blanket, of course; she used the same pattern in different yarns to make a blanket for each of her grandchildren.  Zach still has his, and we use it all the time.  

When my brother-in-law and his wife became pregnant, I wanted to carry on the tradition and make blankets for the new arrivals.  Of course, it turned out to be twins and I had two blankets to make!  And yes, I know that the twins enter kindergarten this year, but I'm finishing the blankets up, and finally got around to typing up Granny's notes as well.  And hey, I got the blankets made before the kiddos were in college, right?  :)

My versions of the blanket (the grey and light blue) are raveled here and here.  The bright blue one in the picture below is Zach's.

Granny's Blanket

(a.k.a Zach's Blanket or The Family Blanket)

Materials:

• Approximately 4100yds of worsted weight yarn. I used just under 5 skeins of Caron One Pound (yes, I just weighed Zach's blanket to calculate how much I would need - his blanket weighed 5lbs).  I stuck with acrylic, like his blanket, since this is to be a blanket the kiddos grow up with, so needs to be heavy-duty and easy to wash.
• Size US 8 needles
• Cable needle
• Crochet hook and/or Tapestry needle for finishing and adding tassels

Optional Materials:

• Stitch markers
• Row counter

Gauge:

16 stitches = 4 inches (gauge isn't all that important, though)

Directions:

These blankets are full, adult-size blankets, not baby blankets, so although the pattern is straight-forward, these aren't quick projects, just based on the sheer size.  The blanket itself is constructed as a series of panels, then seamed together.  Think stitching a bunch of scarves together to form a blanket.  It seems to be a pretty common blanket-making technique, actually, and I've seen similar other patterns around.  This is just the version I got from Granny's notes (with any gaps filled by studying Zach's blanket).

Panels:

Cast on 42 st.

The pattern across the rows will be as follows:

• 2 stitches garter stitch
• 2 st st
• 2 rev st st
• 6 st cable (3 st twist over 3) - cable twist every 8th row
• 2 rev st st
• 2 st st
• 2 rev st st
• 6 st cable (3 st twist over 3) - cable twist every  8th row
• 2 rev st st
• 2 st st
• 2 rev st st
• 6 st cable (3 st twist over 3) - cable twist every  8th row
• 2 rev st st
• 2 st st
• 2 stitches garter stitch

Rows 1-7 - knit in pattern (just knits and purls)

Row 8 - cable row  (I did the cable as a left-leaning twist, but it's really not that important - if you prefer to twist right, that's up to you).

Repeat Rows 1-8 forty-eight (48) times, then 1-7 one (1) more time.  Your panel will have a total of 48 twists, plus a little on the end.

Bind off.

Make 7 panels altogether.

Charts:
 

 Charts created (for free!) on Chart Minder

 
Finishing:

You will seam the panels together to form one blanket out of the 7 scarves you've made.

I used a crochet seam instead of mattress-stitching the panels together because, quite frankly, these are full-length blankets and that's a lot of very long seams (you can see below in the picture). The crochet seam was just a lot easier to back up a stitch or two if I made a mistake :)

Add tassels or fringe, as desired.

For the fringe on these blankets, I cut five lengths of yarn per tassel, and then used a lark's head knot to attach them to the blanket, pulling the clumps of yarn through the edge of the blanket with a crochet hook.  Each panel had about 7 tassels.  In Granny's blanket, she used an overhand knot to secure the tassels.  Personal preference - I just think the lark's head looks neater, but both knots will keep the fringe secure.

Notes, Thoughts and Ramblings:

The stitch markers you can see clipped to the blanket panel in the picture below were marking out every 6th cable repeat - helped me keep track of how far along I was without having to count all the way from the beginning.  It also made seaming a little easier, because I had a landmark to match up between panels.  (I was very excited in this picture.  I'd just finished the first panel.  Yes, I know I still had 6 more to go.  And then another 7 in the second blanket after that.  But I'd finished the first one!)

In my head, I broke up the pattern into 7 sets of 6 stitches - 6 border stitches, 6 st cable, 3x2 little ribs 6 st cable, 3x2 little ribs, 6 st cable, 6 border stitches.  Breaking it up like that in my head made the rows seem even smaller, and helped me to remember the pattern as well.

Of course, no knitting project write-up is complete without a kitty picture :)

As always, the standard wording applies. Thanks very much for checking out my pattern. You are welcome to make any of my patterns for yourself, a friend, or charity, but please do not sell the finished product. If you would like to share the pattern, please do not sell it or try to pass my work off as your own. If you make one of the patterns, I would love to see pictures! Please consider sending me a picture, or letting me know on Ravelry (I’m oddbird26).

I blinked and Spring happened...

Well, I knew this spring semester was going to be a doozy, but I didn't realize how big until I sat down to write today and saw my last post was from DECEMBER!  Yipes!!

But, lots has happened in the meantime, so for a quick catch-up:

• I am in my final semester of grad school, and almost done with that (only 5 more weeks now!!)
• I finished my End of Project Exam in February.  This is the capstone exam for my degree program - Written Comps/Comprehensives, some might know it as.  Basically a looong week of writing papers, trying to demonstrate in your answers that you are fully synthesizing what you have learned over the past three years.  Pretty draining, with the way I write papers.  But all is good; I've been notified that I've passed.  One more box checked off before graduation!
• I finished a pair of blankets for my niece and nephew.  THE blankets, if you've heard me talk about them.  Quite the project, but finally all done and being enjoyed by the little ones :)
• We had a whirlwind trip to New Mexico with Mom for a marathon.  There are so many pictures from this trip, that it will have its own set of posts.
• And the big news (as if all that wasn't enough): Zach and I have moved!  We are now in a hotel in HAWAII looking for housing as Zach in-processes at his new job. After 5 years in TX and 3.5 in the desert, we are in Hawaii!!  Water!  Mountains!  Trees!  Very very exciting!!!!  But more on that in another post, since the whole move has been a saga unto itself.

So, yes, a few more posts to come over the next few days, with plenty of pictures.   I've time to write again, now that the semester's winding down and I'm not working at the moment.  Just consider this a teaser for now, so stay tuned :)

I'm actually gushing about a Red Heart yarn!

I definitely have yarn preferences, like any knitter or crocheter does.  I'm not a true-blue yarn snob, but I do prefer nicer ones over total acrylics or big box yarns.  My preferences tend to be texture-related though.  There are expensive boucles that I hate working with because my dry hands will snag on every little thread and curl in that yarn.  And there are big-box acrylics which are perfectly comfortable to work with.  Like I said above, texture comes first for me.  With that being said, typically expensive yarns with the nicer fibers tend to have nicer texture.  Red Heart Super Saver tends to be looked down on by a lot of "yarnies" but it definitely has its place too.  Wears forever, machine washable, no fading, cheap, etc.  It's a good yarn for stuff for charity or for kids or that will get a lot of hard use.  A good staple yarn, and yarn company, and I've definitely used it more than once, but not a brand that I typically get gushy about.

And then they released this one.

The Yarn

Red Heart Reflective.

 

Yes, reflective!  I've been looking for a reflective yarn for YEARS!  It's perfect for knitting gifts for runners, and as you might imagine, I have a few running friends.  But you couldn't find a reflective yarn.  You can buy spools of silver threads to use as a carry-along with your yarn, but they are very hard to find and tend to be a little expensive and still not exactly what you're looking for when you're looking for reflective yarn.  This is an acrylic yarn with a silver reflective thread wrapped in.  It comes in neons, bright purple, peacock, black and grey.  I chose grey for Zach and bright neon green for me (it contrasts nicely with my neon, safety-yellow running shirts). 

And it's really reflective!  Check out the pictures!!

As a yarn, it's pretty nice to work with, actually.  The silver thread is a little stiffer and a touch rougher than the rest of the yarn, but nothing off-putting.  And like with a lot of acrylics, different colors have different softnesses.  In this case, the green was noticeably softer than the grey.  The grey wasn't bad; the green was just softer.  It knits up nice and soft and squishy, even at a tighter gauge, like in hat pattern.  Not bad!

I really liked it.  I made the two hats for me and Zach.  Then I made wristwarmers for me.  And then I made two more hats for Mom and her running buddy (a close family friend since I was about 9) to celebrate them completing their first marathon at the beginning of December. So proud of them!  For those two hats, I made one in the bright green (again) and one in peacock blue-green.  They need something warm to wear as Mom trains for her second marathon in March!

   

The Pattern

Well, patternS this time.  I had several pieces I wanted to make with this.  So I did :)

As I've said, Zach and I each got a hat, and then I made two more.  All were the Man Hat by Haven Leavitt, available on her blog Knit Alone Together.  It's a nice, simple, broken rib ski cap.  Knits up very fast - I think I finished Zach's hat in about 2 days!  Chunky yarn, even at a tighter gauge, knits up very quickly, and doing the pattern more than once... the hats just flew along.

 

Despite being named the Man Hat, only one of my hat recipients is actually a man.  But for a running hat, these are perfect. I like my running hats to be basic ski or skill caps, not girly slouchy hats or berets or cloches.  Simple ski caps for me.  Or hats shaped like penguins :)  

 

I know that mine totally covers all my hair, now that my hair is so short.  Might as well be a knit swim cap, for all the hair showing.  Still, means that my ears will be warm on winter runs!  And they are very comfy hats.  Zach wears his quite a lot during the winter.  Makes me smile.

Here we are modeling them at last year's Turkey Trot 5K. 

Also made with the yarn was a set of handwarmers (fingerless mitts) for me.  My ears and hands, that's what gets cold on runs. I was wearing the mitts at the Turkey Trot as well as the hat.  You just can't see my hands in the pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it.

The pattern is the Ribbed Fingerless Gloves, a free download from Yarn + Co. 

This is a nice, basic ribbed fingerless mitt pattern.  The directions are nice and clear, and they knit up very quickly in bulky/chunky yarn.  A yarn weight which also means they are nice and squishy and warm.  Not much really more to say, I guess.

 

The hats are raveled here, here, here, and here.  The mitts are raveled here.

Notes, Alterations, Etc.

The caps are the same pattern, and most are exactly according to the pattern.  Zach's has only one minor alteration. His head is a little smaller than mine, so I only knit 6 inches before starting the decreases, instead of 7 inches, like the pattern calls for.

For my fingerless mitts,  I added stripes.  There were about 8 yards of grey left over from Zach’s hat.  I cut them into two even pieces, and then used them to evenly make stripes on the two mitts.  I had enough for 3 stripes on each mitt, 2 rounds per stripe (which you can see in the pictures).

I also followed the directions for the mitts as they were written, but knit them on smaller needles (US 8 instead of 10).  I've small hands, so that made the mitts a little smaller, to actually fit.  And it also produced a little bit denser knit, so a little warmer too.  The only thing I'd add to that is that I'd cast on with larger needles next time, if I'm using the same smaller-needles strategy.  It would give the cuff a little more stretch.

And here we are, modeling 3 of the 4 hats, over the unseasonably warm Christmas holidays this year.  I made them put on the hats so I could take the picture :)