On first looking into a James Patterson novel

In the first chapter of "The 6th Target" a man with a gun named Bucky kills two strangers on a ferry: a mother and her young son. There is language such as 'He wants to smash the kid like a bug and Loser, dog shit." There is no shock value to these events. People die but there is no death to be mourned. I was also reading Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" at the same time. OK so you say I'm stacking the deck but the death of Basarov details his anguish and suffering, his urgent deathbed declaration to his unrequited love, the doctor's frustration at not being able to help him and his grieving parents visiting his grave and the sombre final words, "However passionate, sinning and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenly at us with their innocent eyes. They tell us not of eternal peace alone, of the great peace of indifferent nature, they tell us too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end." Someone gave me Patterson's book with the recommendation that the chapters were only 3 pages long. So the book has 136 chapters. Unfortunately no worthwhile novel has 136 chapters. Patterson is an ex-adman like myself and he has hit the jackpot by turning out potboilers for the unliterary reader. Brilliant marketing. There are wonderful books to read. The title of this blog is of course from John Keats" "On first looking into Chapman's Homer". Go to Amazon.com and find something that will satisfy your mind and heart.