驚悚小說天王詹姆斯•帕特森最佳作品

詹姆斯•帕特森，被譽爲美國驚悚推理小說天王，他的新作一經問世，即能登上《紐約時報》暢銷書排行榜首位，因此，美國《時代週刊》將他比喻爲“從不失手的人”。2004年，詹姆斯•帕特森被評爲《讀者文摘》最受歡迎的作家。以下是其最受歡迎的五部小說：

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1.  Along Came a Spider

The first Alex Cross book is a must-read for obvious reasons. Cross is Patterson’s most popular character, and with more than twenty novels telling the character’s adventures. It’s also a fantastic story, with a plot that twists and turns furiously, almost guaranteeing that you won’t guess the final resolution even though the book is two decades old and was made into a hit film in 2001—it’s that good.

顯而易見，亞力克斯·克勞斯系列小說是詹姆斯·帕特森的必讀書目。克勞斯是帕特森塑造的家喻戶曉的人物形象，共有20餘部小說講述了克勞斯的冒險經歷。該書精彩紛呈，曲折迴盪，不到最後一刻，讀者絕對猜不出結局。雖然本書出版已二十年，且在2001年拍攝了紅極一時的同名電影——至今仍然流行。

2.  Private

Collaboration with Maxine Patero, Private is great fun. Jack Morgan is an interesting character, a former Marine who restarts his father’s old private investigation business, building it into a worldwide enterprise and employing an entertaining array of experts and field agents. Sort of like an old-school 1970s detective show updated to the modern day, Privateis the first of a series that rewards the reader with surprisingly well-sketched characters and relationships as well as twisty, fun mysteries.

詹姆斯·帕特森與瑪克辛·帕特羅合著了《隱私》，該書內容有趣，引人入勝。傑克·摩根是個有意思的人物形象，做過水兵，後來重新操持起父親的私人調查業務，並且發展成了一家全球企業，麾下聚集了不少有趣的專家和機構代理。從某種程度上說，《隱私》像極了上世紀七十年代的偵探劇，只不過背景架構到了今天。該書精妙絕倫，脈絡清晰，人物刻畫栩栩如生，令讀者回味無窮。

3.  Kiss the Girls

Alex Cross is such a fun character that he makes a second appearance here in the second novel to feature the character. Also made into a hit movie, this book is even more complicated than the first, and yet it works because Patterson has put so much thought into the characters, the twists, and the events that tie the plot together. With two serial killers and the various teams assigned to the investigations, Patterson somehow keeps everything spinning—while some of Patterson’s books can get a bit bogged down in the subplots, this one never gets confused or confusing, and remains tense and fun until the climax.

亞力克斯·克勞斯是個有趣的人物形象，在第二部小說中再次出現。《桃色追捕令》也曾拍攝了同名電影，風靡一時。但這部書內容更復雜，情節更曲折。詹姆斯在人物塑造、情節刻畫、事態發展方面，傾注了大量心血，因而更加緊湊、銜接。書中描寫了亞力克斯·克勞斯團隊與連環殺手之間鬥智鬥勇的殊死較量。帕特森總能讓一切顯得撲朔迷離，引人入境——儘管其作品也許往往會使讀者停滯在次要情節，但是這部小說主線清晰，不會令讀者迷惑，激動人心卻又不失趣味，強烈推薦。

4.  1st to Die

Probably Patterson’s second-most popular series, the Women’s Murder Club began in 2001 with 1st to Die, the book that introduced the four professional women who pool their talents to investigate crimes and save the city of San Francisco on a regular erson’s books are frequently brutal in their descriptions of crimes and crime scenes, but 1st to Die is pretty gruesome even by those standards—which makes Patterson’s decision to have female protagonists even more exciting, as women are often (erroneously) depicted as unable to handle the ugliness and violence of murder investigations.

《一號死亡》出版於2001年，是詹姆斯·帕特森女子謀殺俱樂部系列中的第一部。這本書介紹了四名職業女性，她們以自身才智調查犯罪案件，竭力維護舊金山市的社會治安。儘管帕特森的作品中，不乏一些野蠻罪行和犯罪現場的描述，但是，《一號死亡》更加變態、駭人聽聞。這反而使女主人公看起來更加激動人心，畢竟在世人眼中，婦女通常（錯誤地）無能處理醜陋、暴力的兇殺案件。

5.  The Thomas Berryman Number

Patterson’s debut novel won the Edgar Award for best novel in 1976, and is an excellent story about the murder of one of the first black mayors of Nashville, Tennessee amidst the boiling racial tensions of the early-1970s South. A reporter, Ochs Jones, begins to investigate, soon discovering that the obvious superficial motives for the murder don’t hold water—and that there’s a lot more going on. The book that launched Patterson’s writing career is excellent—but long time fans will be surprised at how different it is in pacing and writing style from Patterson’s modern output. That alone makes it a must-read if you really want to get in on what Patterson offers.

1976年，帕特森以處女作《託瑪斯玻利曼的數字》獲得國際驚險犯罪小說愛倫坡獎。該書以上世紀七十年代美國南部田納西州種族之間的緊張局勢爲背景，描述了田納西州首府納什維爾首位黑人市長遭人殺害的故事。奧克斯·瓊斯是一位記者，經調查，他發現表面的殺人動機並不真實——隨着調查的深入，真相漸漸浮出表面。這部書使詹姆斯·帕特森聲名大噪——然而，時間久了，粉絲驚奇地發現《託瑪斯玻利曼的數字》在故事節奏、寫作風格方面與帕特森後期的作品風格迥異。單憑這一點，就值得一讀。那麼，現在就開始閱讀吧。