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There is always a pile of James Patterson novels on my shelf waiting to be read along with other authors and genres. His work is prolific, his collaborations now many. 'Swimsuit' is one such collaboration with Maxine Paetro and the darkest Patterson I have read. I have long been sceptical about the extent of these literary relationships, with Patterson himself averring on a television interview two or three years ago that he is the major contributor to each. Personally, I doubt it but with a work like 'Swimsuit', it is a convenient arrangement either way. If the book is the product of a darker mind than his own then he still gets the more prominent billing on the cover and a presumably proportionate dollar stream. If the darkness comes from within then he benefits from the distraction of the second name on the cover to create doubt on the mind of loyal readers used to more frothy (if still compelling) fare. 'Swimsuit', for all that it is rather graphic is also very readable but I found fault with its rather hurried ending produced almost as if a limit had been reached in the number of pages.

Patterson's trademark short chapters and generously sized print are not replicated by the less well known but excellent John Birmingham. I doubt that the Australian would have become famous for the early and awkwardly titled 'He Died With A Felafel In His Hand' but the  'Weapons of Choice' trilogy , 'Designated Targets', and 'Final Impact', cemented his place in the affections of many, certainly mine. Modestly described as 'novels of alternate history', a favourite genre of mine, his works are more complex than that. I could use the 'techno thriller' epithet which also appears on his covers but, to entice you in to the bookshop, I would explain that the stories are of alternate history with quasi-sci-fi theme. Where doyen of alternate history, Harry Turtledove became increasingly laboured and self-indulgent after his masterly 'World War' series, Birmingham's prose continued now in 'Without Warning', which is in my hands and 'After America' which certainly will be, is far more targetted, pointfully terse and readable. In the early pages of 'Without Warning' which postulates a catastrophic event overwhelming the US on the eve of Gulf 2, I can not imagine not reaching the end as soon as possible and then hurrying back to Barnes & Noble in Palm Desert for the ironically named 'After America'.