In 1980 Patterson published Virgin with a similar story line, many of the same scenes, and some of the same characters. Cradle and All is "an entirely reimagined version," reports Daisy Maryles in Publishers Weekly.

The same article reports that Patterson has written seventeen novels that have boosted him to "one of the top six best-selling novelists in the U.S."

Patterson cites Stephen King as an author he likes to read. Charles L. Grant in Twilight Zone quotes King: "Almost all horror stories mirror specific areas of freeforming anxieties." Patterson says his stories are meant to reflect our deepest fears.

King compares the violence in fairy stories, such as Hansel and Gretel, in which the witch states she is going to eat the children, implying cannibalism, with events in his stories. He concludes that his books have a milder form of violence and horror than many...