4. James Patterson
James Patterson is mostly known for his crime thrillers, often featuring Alex Cross. His books have sold over 270 million copies. Patterson has progressively gotten worse throughout the years. While Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls are decent stories, he treads into greater stupidity later. His villains often become more and more cartoonish and caricatures rather than really creepy. His kills and villains become more and more outrageous and lose touch with reality. A perfect example is a character named the Butcher. He is a ruthless mobster who attacks everyone he comes across. A character like that loses his effectiveness because you always know what to expect. Also, after the Butcher kills someone, he gives a little bow. It is so kitsch, he might as well have a catchphrase. Other times, Patterson just seems to get lazy. An excellent example is in the book Cross where Alex Cross is tracking a killer who likes to murder in front of big groups of people. Giving him the scary and intense nickname of DCAK. Which stands for D.C. Audience Killer. That's it? That is the best he could come up with? It is like he wrote the name in the rough draft, planned to change it later and forgot about it. The worst is that at times he can treat his readers like idiots and will spoon feed his reader information and clues. For example, in Violets are Blue, Cross is hunting a super criminal called "The Mastermind." At some point in the novel when communicating with the The Mastermind, Cross noticed that he uses police lingo. Clearly indicating that the Mastermind can be only one character. Then you have to read the other half of the book to find out you're right. Also, the Mastermind scenario doesn't make much sense, comes out of nowhere and makes it looks like Patterson was stuck for an idea on what to write. Patterson is crossing the line into offensively bad stories.