Private: #1 Suspect
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 377
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 19 – 22, 2014
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 40
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy (Rec. from grandmother)
Series: Jack Morgan #2
Blurb: Private’s Jack Morgan is accused of a horrible murder – and not even his own world-class investigators can prove he didn’t do it.
Since former marine Jack Morgan started Private, the elite investigation firm has been sought out by the famous and powerful to handle their problems. Private’s detectives are the smartest, fastest, and most technologically advanced in the world – and they always uncover the truth. But when his former lover is found killed in his bed, Jack instantly becomes the number one suspect. As the police focus on Jack, the Mob strong-arms him into recovering $30 million in stolen pharmaceuticals for them. And the beautiful manager of a luxury hotel chain persuades him to solve a string of murders at her properties. Now, while Jack fights for his life, one of his most trusted colleagues threatens to leave Private – and Jack realizes he faces the most clever and powerful enemies ever.
Review: This book was from my own shelves, all opinions expressed below are my own.
Those of you who have been following me for quite some time, know that I used to devour James Patterson. At one time I was caught up with his Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Michael Bennett series. There were very few Patterson books that came out that I didn’t read (and we all know he produces a lot!). But somewhere along the way I stopped reading him.
But when Bout of Books rolled around this week, I got to thinking about what I would want to read this week. I knew a James Patterson would be perfect … you can’t beat how quickly his books read … the short chapters are perfect for something like bout of books … and they’re pretty well mindless. Perfect. It also didn’t hurt that I looked and realized that out of the last 10 books I had read, 9 of those were review books. It was time for some guilt free reading.
I’m not sure why this is the Patterson book I chose. But I’m glad it was. I had read and reviewed the first Private book back in 2011. I remembered liking it, but had no other recollection of the storylines/characters. Luckily, that isn’t a big deal in this book – it reads decently as a standalone. As I look back over my 2011 review, I realize that I have the same main complaint about this book .. the sheer number of story lines. There are four in this installment – the murder Jack is accused of, a celebrity the firm is to keep track of, a “favor” that Jack has to do for the Mob, and a case of men being murdered in hotels. It was really too much; if I were writing the book, I would have cut out the whole deal with the celebrity and focused much more on the hotel killings, it was a much more interesting story line.
Regardless, though, this book was exactly what I needed at the time I read it. Fast. Short. Fun. And I was able to read it guilt free … something that I haven’t been able to do a lot of in 2014. So if you want a fun, mindless escape, I would definitely recommend this one.
Tales of a Book Addict 