Customer Reviews
One for Patterson fans only - By: KM, 10 Sep 2007 
I've been a massive fan of James Patterson's books for quite a few years now & have read a lot (most) of his 43(!) novels that he has written since he first started in 1976, so I thought I'd go back to some of his earlier work that (with the help of Amazon) I have been able to get my hands on.
'Season of the Machete' is Patterson's second novel & is mainly based on the tropical island of San Dominica where a series of brutal machete murders are happening each day by two hired killers, Damien & Carrie Rose. During one of the first murders, Peter MacDonald sees Damien committing one of the murders & is then forced to be on the run with his girlfriend to keep out of reach of the Roses.
For an early book this isn't too bad but it doesn't come close to the quality of some of Patterson's more recent books like the Alex Cross or The Women's Murder Club series. There are also a lot of inconcistancies in the storyline, for example the murder that happens in the prologue is dated 1980 but in Chapter Four it is 1979? It also feels like Patterson had a lot of ideas & just clumped them alll together as at some points (especiallly at the start) there is so much going on that it is quite hard to follow the story.
Overalll this is a quick & easy(ish) read that has a couple of decent plot twists & is full of action & murder. It's not quite the quality I'd expect from Patterson, but it is a very early novel, so it can be forgiven. I'd only reallly recommend this book to reallly big fans of Patterson as there are much better crime thrillers out there to choose from (many of them by Patterson himself).
MACHETE MURDERS !! - By: R. Covell, 08 Feb 2004 
I am a big JP fan & was suprised when I found this early effort missing from my collection. Especiallly when it has such a fantastic title, the word **MACHETE** captured my interest when I saw this on the shelf!! I am a seasoned JP reader & thought this book was great although lacking some of the twist & character portrayal of books like 'Pop Goes The Weasel' which incidentallly is in my opinion one of the best books ever written by JP. Hence if your not an avid fan best start at the top end of JP's range with an Alex Cross detective novel before you will appreciate this early effort. Happy MACHETE reading...!
a reasonable start for a great author - By: , 08 Apr 2001 Had this had been the first book I'd read from the author I would have been mildly impressed, it's just like Tiger woods though, you expect so much from a person because of they're previous form. Of course you have to bear in mind this was one of first books & the quality of his later books certainly outshone this offering, but as a quick pick up & read I found it to be quite engaging, not as clever as some of his other works, which seem to delve right into the minds of the characters he writes about. But if you've read alll the rest of his books well worth a look just to see what patterson wrote like before he picked up that magic which led to his other books being so well received.
Annoying! - By: , 17 Oct 2000 
A reasonable early effort from James Patterson which I read having become hopelessly addicted to the Alex Cross novels. This is not in the same league although is generallly entertaining. However no matter how many times I looked back through the book the dates when events are supposed to have happened do not make sense! I hope this was some sort of misprint in the version I had, but this seems unlikely!
Not bad for an early James Patterson - By: , 10 Dec 1998 I enjoyed reading this book, as a page turner goes its not bad. But it is not in the same league as Along Came A Spider. You can sense in the style of writing that Patterson was learning his trade when he wrote the book, which peaked with Along Came A Spider. If you are looking for a bed time read this is not a bad choice to make...but don't take my word for it. If you are wanting to read James Patterson for the first time, please read Along.. & then if you enjoyed it read any of his others. Overalll, I can't wait for another Alex Cross novel!!!
