Posts Tagged ‘James Patterson’
I told you I was on a James Patterson binge! I read Alex Cross, Run in about two evenings. It was riveting and kept me interested to the end. You might not think reading a book in two evenings is very quick, but that’s reading after hours of trying to get through another level in Candy Crush and playing a word search game on my iPad! So it really is a feat!
In this book,
strange murders are taking place in Georgetown. In an area of Washington, DC, normally not stricken with many murders, they are suddenly occurring regularly and with a bizarre quality that has everyone taking notice. A body dangling out a sixth floor window, a mutilated high school senior, and others. Alex Cross notices that all the women look similar and the young men are active in the sex trade, leading him to consider that there are two separate killers. Are they working together or separately?
Add infamily drama: Alex Cross’ foster daughter is acting strangely. But no one can figure out what exactly is going on. Is she experimenting with drugs? A stalker intent on revenge upon Cross complicates things even further.
Murder. Kidnapping. Prostitution. Revenge. Alex Cross, Run has it all.
I do wonder how much trauma and drama one family can take. Because the Cross family seems to experience entirely to much to bear. Also, what will happen to all of them when Mama Nana passes away? She’s getting old! If I seem a little invested in this family, it’s because I’ve been with them through these books for years!
I haven’t seen the Alex Cross movie starring Tyler Perry, but I found it quite easy to slip Perry’s image into place as I was reading. It was a nice fit.
Thankfully Patterson is prolific, and I won’t have to wait long to get my next dose of the Cross family.
Once again, I must comment on James Patterson’s prolific writing career. Last weekend I read two of his novels and was mesmerized. Today I’m going to talk about Private Berlin which was written by Patterson and Mark Sullivan. Obviously, this book is set in modern day Berlin and involves the staff of Private, the elite private investigation firm created by Jack Morgan.
This time the Private investigators are investigating one of their own.
When Chris Schneider disappears, they rally the forces and their incredibly forensic resources to find out what happened to the secretive investigator. Initially the trail leads to an old slaughterhouse, abandoned years ago when the wall fell between East and West Berlin. The investigators are only able to get a quick look at a horrifying crime scene before explosives are found. They barely evacuate before the building is blown to pieces.
What was Chris investigating before his strange personal leave? What was he searching for in the abandoned slaughter house?
This is an exciting read. I was starting to think Patterson was getting boring, but this book renewed my faith in the God Father of Prose. There’s plenty of historical information to keep the story rolling along and to add to the excitement of the chase. There are personal relationships at stake and being formed.
With lots of twists and turns, this book should keep you flipping through the pages, soaring through the short chapters at break neck speed. Plan on going to bed late…
I will never look at any animal the same after reading Zoo by James Patterson and Micheal Ledwidge. I’m waiting for all the household pets and neighborhood wildlife to start changing…
Jackson Oz is a young biologist who dropped out of graduate school to start tracking strange animal attacks around the world. No one wants to hear his theories about the increases and even argue that they don’t exist. When a zoo keeper is attacked and killed by the lions in his care, Oz knows something is happening. When he travels to Africa to document animal attacks there, he barely escapes with his own life. His friend is dead at the hands of attacking lions, but Oz has video evidence of something seriously wrong with the behavior of the animals. Not only are they attacking humans; their normal hunting habits have radically changed.
Oz returns to the United States with a young woman he rescues from a certain attack and death at the hand of crocodiles. She is an ecologist whose entire research group was killed by African wildlife. Together they start spreading the word about the changes happening in the animal world. Still, no one wants to take them seriously until the entire human race is being threatened.
Once a solution is identified and safeguards are put into place, the animals begin returning to normal. But can man maintain the changes necessary? Or will the privileged among us insist on ignoring them?
Patterson and Ledwidge bring us a thought-provoking read during an election year and to a society commited to its creature comforts and conveniences. What if you had to change your way of life to save the human race? Could you? Would you?
Zoo has affected me much like Stephen King’s Pet Sematary did back in the day. I’m waiting…watching…
Another rip-roaring thriller from James Patterson! I, Michael Bennett brings back Detective Michael Bennett…
who’s hunting down a Mexican drug czar. Bennet and his team know where he’ll be and they are determined to bring him down. But their plan goes awry and he slips away from them. Soon enough they catch up to him, but even behind bars and during his trial, he’s capable of intimidating people through murder and mayhem. When the threat comes close to home, Michael and his family are faced with touch decisions.
I picture Michael Bennett as Detective Elliot Stabler (aka Christopher Meloni). Except surrounded by a bunch of kids (there are 10 little Bennett’s!) and an Irish nanny (pictured in my head as Jane Leeves; I never said my accents were on track!). Oh, and a priest grandfather who looks and sounds like Burgess Meredith!
As I read, I was constantly waiting for closure. I wanted something to happen to the bad guy…fast! I wanted everyone to be safe. I wanted a nicely wrapped up little tale by the last page of the book.
I got none of those things. The ending was shocking to me. And, as always with a Patterson series, left me wanting more. Now!
Yes, another James Patterson novel! The man is nothing if not a prolific writer! Guilty Wives delivers the normal Patterson quick-read adventure.
I read this in one day and was stressed out completely by the story! I had to turn the pages and read as fast as I could so I could get to the conclusion of the story. I’m in a mood, so it was almost too stressful. Almost…
In Guilty Wives…
Abbie Elliott and three friends leave their husbands behind and head to Monte Carlo for a girls-only four-day trip. Champagne, bikinis, and casinos. Inhibitions are left behind as the women revel in their faux singleness.
Until the morning after, when the yacht they spent the night on is raided and they are all dragged away in handcuffs. Detained and arrested in France, the four women are accused of a horrific crime. The evidence against them is damning.
But Abbie never gives up. Even when threatened and tortured, she won’t say she’s something she’s not: guilty.
Abbie’s story is a good one. One woman refuses to give in when everyone around her tells her she must. She won’t do it for her children, her husband, or her best friends. She is determined to discover the truth.
Another Patterson must-read! If you’re feeling really stressed or anxious, you might want to delay it until you’re feeling better.
Another rip-roaring read from James Patterson and Friends! Private Games is as mesmerizing and pulsating as all the rest!
Private, the elite security company, is providing services for the 2012 Olympics being held in London. The city of London is primed to show itself off in the best possible light as they host athletes from all around the globe.
But someone has a grudge against the Olympics and has chosen 2012 as the year to exact revenge. First killed is Peter Knight’s soon-to-be stepfather, who is decapitated in his garden. A missive from the murderer soon follows, accusing Sir Denton Marshall of crimes against the games. Knight, part of Private’s London team, vows to discover who has sent his mother into another spiral of grief at the loss of her love. Dealing with nearly-three year old twins and trouble keeping nannies, Knight does his best to save the Olympics.
As each murder takes place and is explained, the unknown Cronus terrifies the world. No one knows where he will strike next. Knight, the Private London team, and other law enforcement personnel fight to stay ahead of him. Soon it is revealed that he is being aided by a trio of Bosnian war criminals known as The Furies, adding to the twists and turns.
As always, this was a quick read with tons of page-turning action. I loved the backdrop of the Olympics and Cronus is a worthy opponent. I had fun guessing the bad guy.
I wish I could spend just a few days with James Patterson to see how he cranks out such page-turners. I tried explaining his writing to Jeremy and all I came up with is, “it’s all action.” Private: #1 Suspect certainly proves me right!
The book starts with a woman being killed in Jack Morgan’s bed. Jack arrives shortly after, heads straight to the shower, and then enters his bedroom to find his former lover, Colleen, bloody and dead.
Since he owns the top-notch investigative firm, Private, his best-in-their-field employees immediately come to access the crime scene. They are in and out before the police are called and Jack becomes the one and only suspect in Colleen’s murder.
Business goes on for Private. Mobsters need their $30 million of prescription pharmaceuticals recovered from the men who hijacked their truck. The owner of a string of classy hotels wants to know who’s killing males guests.
Of course, the employees of Private are also working on solving Colleen’s murder.
Patterson & Paetro lead us through the simultaneous investigations. It’s a wild ride getting to the bottom of all three mysteries.
I thought of a great twist–something I think Patterson would love–as I read the parts about the luxury-hotel-guest serial case. Alas, Patterson’s mind and my own each took a different road. Still, I think mine would have been a zinger!
Check out #1 Suspect. But I warn you, you won’t want to put the book down until you know who done it!
Yay! The first official read for 2012. My goal is 50 books again this year, even though I fell short in 2011. Since the library keeps calling me to let me know they are holding books from my favorite authors, I might be done by June!
Kill Alex Cross made me nervous! I was so afraid James Patterson was going to kill off one of my favorite fictional characters! It’s not really a spoiler letting you know that Alex Cross can make another appearance in the future!
This time around, Alex Cross becomes involved when the President of the United States faces a parent’s worse nightmare–his children are abducted. Temporarily ditching their Secret Service team, the two children disappear from the grounds of their exclusive private school. Alex Cross is frustrated as he is kept to the sidelines while the FBI takes over the case. It isn’t until the First Lady herself insists that he be put on the case that he fully becomes involved.
Intertwined with the kidnapping story line, there is a cell of terrorists plotting the fall of the United States. Calling themselves The Family, the group has planned the most horrific events ever. Are they responsible for the kidnapping? Is this their way of bringing the First Family to their knees?
You’ve gotta love a James Patterson novel. It flies by, chapters are short, making you turn pages rapidly. This was another read-in-a-day book!
If you’re a Patterson fan, this is a must-read. If you haven’t read anything from this series, this is a great stand-alone book. Then you can go back to the beginning and get caught up. Alex Cross and his supporting cast are entertaining. He’s one of the good guys and you can’t help but cheer him along!
It got down to the wire and I had to read Kill Me If You Can in one day because it was due back at the library the next. I was prepared to read a few chapters and surrender if it didn’t appeal to me. I had doubts that even James Patterson could make a done-to-death plot line engaging for me.
Kill Me If You Can is the story of Matthew Bannon, a poor art student, who finds a bag of diamonds during a botched murder/suspected terrorist attack at Grand Central Station. He comes upon a dying man, follows a trail of blood, and finds the diamonds. He takes the diamonds and flees the scene. Unfortuntely, the diamonds belong to Russian gangsters, who will stop at nothing to get them back. Matthew goes to Paris with the love of his life, unaware that a highly-feared contract killer, The Ghost, is on his trail. That’s where the twists and turns start that are so typical of a James Patternson novel.
“Typical” doesn’t mean over-used, it means that a typical Patterson novel has so many unexpected things happening that you have to turn the page to hurry on to the next one. Kill Me If You Can delivers that roller coaster ride of a novel.
I’m glad I kept reading this book. It was one hell of a great Monday to go on an adventure with Matthew Bannon!
James Patterson is one prolific author! Now You See Her is another one of his wild rides through danger and adventure.
Patterson takes the woman running from bad people theme and adds his own brand of excitement and page-turning anxiety. With his short chapters and rip roaring action, this is a fast read!
Nina Bloom is living the great life. She and her teenage daughter live in New York, where she’s a successful lawyer. But everything changes in a heartbeat when she’s confronted with an injustice she knows first hand. In order to right the wrong that’s about to be committed, she needs to face her past and the dangers she ran from as a pregnant wife sixteen years before.
A criminal husband, an evil serial killer, and a reluctant fellow attorney won’t stop Nina as she races to set things right. Maybe she can even fix the past and stop running…
