15 August 2011

Book Review: Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

I quite enjoyed this novel by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro but for me it was a bit cluttered. It centres on an agency who are detectives and general do gooders.

There are so many threads to this novel though. There is Jack (the main character) and his twin's relationship. There is the match fixing in American football. There are a pair of serial killers on the loose that his agency is following. There is Jack's relationship with Colleen. There is Jack's unfinished business from his time in the army as a helicopter pilot. There is also Jack investigating the murder of his best friend's wife. Oh yes, and there is Mafia involvement too if that wasn't enough already.

As I said this is pretty cluttered as a novel and what seems to happen is that you just get a skimming of each part of the novel. I believe it would have been much better to have had half of the threads running and gone into them in more detail. Patterson is better than this normally, I would have thought that he would have done some trimming here and letting out in other places. I will read the sequel Private London I am sure as I want to read all of his novels but I hope for better than this.

The prose is good and it reads easily but it each chapter is like someone with a TV zapper and you keep straining to remember where you were with the last thread.

Only 6/10 for this one.

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