I took both of these books on vacation last week. Patterson books read quickly, with all those short chapters free of descriptive fluff. They just move right along. Good vacation reading.

"Double Cross" is another winner in the Alex Cross series, which Patterson writes himself. He creates very dasturdly villains. In this book we've got two--the Audience Killer, and Kyle Craig, a villain from a previous book who's been in a Supermax prison for years. This book comes to a conclusion which, for me, was unexpected but satisfying.

Patterson, like Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy, has branded himself. A stable of other writers do books under the Patterson label, and they closely follow the Patterson style. "Sail" is better than good, but it's not great. It's very good. Or pretty good. I enjoyed it. I "sailed" right along. Started it the last day of vacation (last Sunday), but didn't finish it until Tuesday. I thought it was headed toward a predictable ending, but it took a sudden detour, and I appreciated that.