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Patterns: When coincidences aren't
The article in USA Today about a NFL football player dying in a car crash grabbed Travis’s Snider’s attention because it was the fourth death in five months on the same team. The media called it a strange coincidence but Travis, a junior college instructor with a passion for statistics, saw it as something different: a pattern of deaths.
Other patterns soon unfold: five animal park workers are mauled in a week, six New Jersey assembly members die, and four women named Gladys win big lottery prizes in a row; each event having a statistical probability measurable in the billions. Random events were forming into inexplicable patterns. But why was it happening?
Many had theories, and something to gain. Former Congressman Abe Simpson demanded compulsorily gun ownership for every US citizen to counter whatever force was behind the patterns. Preacher Paul held marches to denounce the devil wreaking havoc. Andy Sweeney, the charismatic and ambitious host of a late night talk show Mind Bogglers, smelled opportunity by making Travis into a media star.
‘Patterns’ examines the public’s reaction when a monkey-wrench gets tossed into the normal course of rational thinking. It’s also the story of Travis, an unassuming man who finds himself ill-cast into a world of fame and Hollywood glamor, manipulated by TV-host Andy Sweeney and his seductive assistant-producer Stephanie. All of a sudden Travis is at the epicenter of the decade’s most important news story, in a world where normal reality has been tossed upside down while Travis is being asked to explain to an upset public, “Why?”
Other patterns soon unfold: five animal park workers are mauled in a week, six New Jersey assembly members die, and four women named Gladys win big lottery prizes in a row; each event having a statistical probability measurable in the billions. Random events were forming into inexplicable patterns. But why was it happening?
Many had theories, and something to gain. Former Congressman Abe Simpson demanded compulsorily gun ownership for every US citizen to counter whatever force was behind the patterns. Preacher Paul held marches to denounce the devil wreaking havoc. Andy Sweeney, the charismatic and ambitious host of a late night talk show Mind Bogglers, smelled opportunity by making Travis into a media star.
‘Patterns’ examines the public’s reaction when a monkey-wrench gets tossed into the normal course of rational thinking. It’s also the story of Travis, an unassuming man who finds himself ill-cast into a world of fame and Hollywood glamor, manipulated by TV-host Andy Sweeney and his seductive assistant-producer Stephanie. All of a sudden Travis is at the epicenter of the decade’s most important news story, in a world where normal reality has been tossed upside down while Travis is being asked to explain to an upset public, “Why?”
352 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2013
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 21, 2013
I cannot express enough how completely and utterly dull and boring this book is. It's however many hundred pages and NOTHING HAPPENS. Nothing. There is no suspense, so crime to solve, no good guy on the run, no epic romance, no mystery of any kind. And no excitement.
A statistician notices unlikely patterns of people dying (multiple people on one football team, multiple people with the same name, multiple bus drivers in one city, etc.). A TV talk show host hires the statistician with his patterns and has him as a guest. A large network picks up the show, they make lots of money, bad things happen, a weak attempt at a love triangle is created, the book ends. THAT'S IT. There is absolutely nothing that makes you want to keep turning the page. No cliff hangers. No wondering what will happen in the next chapter. It took me forever to get through this book and I'm sorry I did! I kept thinking there MUST be some dramatic conclusion at the end to explain all these patterns. NOPE. The explanation was "who knows, it's the universe". REALLY?? The only mediocre semi-drama is why these things are happening, and there's no answer AT ALL in the book?
The premise is original and creative. However, the reason there are no other books like it is because it doesn't make for a good book. There are tons of random facts and statistics thrown in throughout the book. I have no doubt the author did his research. But as far as an entertaining story, this falls completely flat. I'm at a loss as to how other reviewers on Amazon found this interesting.
A statistician notices unlikely patterns of people dying (multiple people on one football team, multiple people with the same name, multiple bus drivers in one city, etc.). A TV talk show host hires the statistician with his patterns and has him as a guest. A large network picks up the show, they make lots of money, bad things happen, a weak attempt at a love triangle is created, the book ends. THAT'S IT. There is absolutely nothing that makes you want to keep turning the page. No cliff hangers. No wondering what will happen in the next chapter. It took me forever to get through this book and I'm sorry I did! I kept thinking there MUST be some dramatic conclusion at the end to explain all these patterns. NOPE. The explanation was "who knows, it's the universe". REALLY?? The only mediocre semi-drama is why these things are happening, and there's no answer AT ALL in the book?
The premise is original and creative. However, the reason there are no other books like it is because it doesn't make for a good book. There are tons of random facts and statistics thrown in throughout the book. I have no doubt the author did his research. But as far as an entertaining story, this falls completely flat. I'm at a loss as to how other reviewers on Amazon found this interesting.
February 6, 2014
Did I get the Kindle version missing the good bits?
I don't know what anyone saw in this book. It had to be the most boring book ever written.
The idea sounds like a riveting conspiracy theory that would lead somewhere, but it NEVER does.
The book goes NOWHERE.
Maybe this is what statisticians get off on reading.
I don't know what anyone saw in this book. It had to be the most boring book ever written.
The idea sounds like a riveting conspiracy theory that would lead somewhere, but it NEVER does.
The book goes NOWHERE.
Maybe this is what statisticians get off on reading.
February 11, 2014
Patterns is well written and for a few hundred pages it looks like it is going to be a whopper of a story. But the patterns the author teases the reader with amount to very little. The story is circular and nothing is in the middle.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews