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This 2003 novel is different from James Patterson’s most famous fare: The Alex Cross mysteries, set in contemporary times, with titles that play upon children’s nursery rhymes, with their wolfish terrorists and depraved serial killers. But “Jester” does follow another Patterson pattern. Patterson reportedly has so many story ideas that he doesn’t have time to write them all. So, with a best-selling reputation that precedes him, Patterson is known to farm out some of these story ideas to other writers who do the heavy lifting of co-writing the narrative under his direction. These partner writers, however, still adhere to Patterson’s other patterns: Short chapters of no more than three or four pages and even shorter paragraphs of two or three sentences. Like other Patterson books, “Jester” is a page-turning read. It is set in feudal France in the age of lords, knights, serfs, and Crusades. A young serf leaves his village and love for the Crusades with hopes of freedom and glory. He discovers horrifying death in the name of religion. He returns home to discover more horrors: His love has been kidnapped and possibly killed, an infant son he never knew has been murdered. To avenge them, he becomes a jester on the pretext of getting close to his family’s killers, but he has returned from the Crusades with more than he’s reckoned. In his possession is a mighty holy relic and within his soul is the courage of a free man.