詹姆斯•帕特森，被誉为美国惊悚推理小说天王，他的新作一经问世，即能登上《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜首位，因此，美国《时代周刊》将他比喻为“从不失手的人”。2004年，詹姆斯•帕特森被评为《读者文摘》最受欢迎的作家。以下是其最受欢迎的五部小说：

　　1. Along Came a Spider

　　1.《全面追捕令》

　　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.

　　显而易见，亚力克斯·克劳斯系列小说是詹姆斯·帕特森的必读书目。克劳斯是帕特森塑造的家喻户晓的人物形象，共有20余部小说讲述了克劳斯的冒险经历。该书精彩纷呈，曲折回荡，不到最后一刻，读者绝对猜不出结局。虽然本书出版已二十年，且在2001年拍摄了红极一时的同名电影——至今仍然流行。

　　2. Private

　　2.《隐私》

　　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·帕特森与玛克辛·帕特罗合著了《隐私》，该书内容有趣，引人入胜。杰克·摩根是个有意思的人物形象，做过水兵，后来重新操持起父亲的私人调查业务，并且发展成了一家全球企业，麾下聚集了不少有趣的专家和机构代理。从某种程度上说，《隐私》像极了上世纪七十年代的侦探剧，只不过背景架构到了今天。该书精妙绝伦，脉络清晰，人物刻画栩栩如生，令读者回味无穷。

　　3. Kiss the Girls

　　3.《桃色追捕令》

　　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.

　　亚力克斯·克劳斯是个有趣的人物形象，在第二部小说中再次出现。《桃色追捕令》也曾拍摄了同名电影，风靡一时。但这部书内容更复杂，情节更曲折。詹姆斯在人物塑造、情节刻画、事态发展方面，倾注了大量心血，因而更加紧凑、衔接。书中描写了亚力克斯·克劳斯团队与连环杀手之间斗智斗勇的殊死较量。帕特森总能让一切显得扑朔迷离，引人入境——尽管其作品也许往往会使读者停滞在次要情节，但是这部小说主线清晰，不会令读者迷惑，激动人心却又不失趣味，强烈推荐。

　　4. 1st to Die

　　4.《1号死亡》

　　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 basis.Patterson’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.

　　《一号死亡》出版于2001年，是詹姆斯·帕特森女子谋杀俱乐部系列中的第一部。这本书介绍了四名职业女性，她们以自身才智调查犯罪案件，竭力维护旧金山市的社会治安。尽管帕特森的作品中，不乏一些野蛮罪行和犯罪现场的描述，但是，《一号死亡》更加变态、骇人听闻。这反而使女主人公看起来更加激动人心，毕竟在世人眼中，妇女通常(错误地)无能处理丑陋、暴力的凶杀案件。

　　5. The Thomas Berryman Number

　　5.《托玛斯玻利曼的数字》

　　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，帕特森以处女作《托玛斯玻利曼的数字》获得国际惊险犯罪小说爱伦坡奖。该书以上世纪七十年代美国南部田纳西州种族之间的紧张局势为背景，描述了田纳西州首府纳什维尔首位黑人市长遭人杀害的故事。奥克斯·琼斯是一位记者，经调查，他发现表面的杀人动机并不真实——随着调查的深入，真相渐渐浮出表面。这部书使詹姆斯·帕特森声名大噪——然而，时间久了，粉丝惊奇地发现《托玛斯玻利曼的数字》在故事节奏、写作风格方面与帕特森后期的作品风格迥异。单凭这一点，就值得一读。那么，现在就开始阅读吧。

（编辑：何莹莹）