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bthompson80's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
a_writer_guy's review against another edition
2.0
I've read some of Patterson's YA stuff like Maximum Ride and Daniel X and enjoyed it to varying degrees. I've not read any of his stuff geared toward adults because I'm not really into crime/detective stuff. I was lent this book by someone without asking for it, and felt as if I had to read it for that reason.
Almost every Patterson book I've ever seen has some other author attached to it, and it makes me wonder if he is actually doing any kind of writing whatsoever, or if he's just slapping his name on stuff and having it published for people. If that's the case, where do I sign up?
Anyway, this book was ok at best. Decent story, but a little contrived and cliched. The dialogue was my biggest issue with this book. People just don't talk to each other like they do in this book. It was like whoever actually wrote this was trying their darndest to create cool characters that would last forever in your memory by the way they spoke. Sadly, the dialogue also seemed A LOT like the dialogue in Patterson's YA stuff, which is pretty bad considering those books are geared toward entertaining teens. Whatever. It was an alright story with a mildly surprising ending, but the big shocks are easily predicatable if you have half a brain.
Read it if you've got nothing else better going on in your life.
Almost every Patterson book I've ever seen has some other author attached to it, and it makes me wonder if he is actually doing any kind of writing whatsoever, or if he's just slapping his name on stuff and having it published for people. If that's the case, where do I sign up?
Anyway, this book was ok at best. Decent story, but a little contrived and cliched. The dialogue was my biggest issue with this book. People just don't talk to each other like they do in this book. It was like whoever actually wrote this was trying their darndest to create cool characters that would last forever in your memory by the way they spoke. Sadly, the dialogue also seemed A LOT like the dialogue in Patterson's YA stuff, which is pretty bad considering those books are geared toward entertaining teens. Whatever. It was an alright story with a mildly surprising ending, but the big shocks are easily predicatable if you have half a brain.
Read it if you've got nothing else better going on in your life.
attyjlg's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
therealbel's review against another edition
3.0
Good fun, not taxing, just what I wanted in a detective story. The two main plots probably could have been two books, as there wasn't a thing to tie them together and probably suffered at each other's hands. Overall though, an enjoyable quick read.
direton1's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
kstumpf's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
pato_myers's review against another edition
2.0
The writing is well paced, but way too many chapters. It messes my reading to have so many breaks. Having two plots is good for any mystery, but I wasn't super interested in the abduction.
brontejane's review against another edition
3.0
Your typical James Patterson book. I usually read when I need something mindless and quick to read. However, that also means that I will probably not remember much about the story after a couple weeks.
thursday48's review against another edition
4.0
Private L.A. has the team at Private working a missing persons case of an A list family (think Jolie-Pitt) as well as being brought into work on a mass murders group in the L.A. area. Mark Sullivan is great addition to James Patterson in this book.
This book was so much better than the Private #1 Suspect, and may have been better than Private. While Tommy and the mob where in this book they had a much smaller role that did ensure that they will show up again but they were not over arching. This is really great because that was one of my big gripes with #1 Suspect.
As for the cases in this book I really enjoyed how different the 2 cases were. They were both very interesting and I was trying to figure them out up until all was revealed. The Harlow case was stomach turning when you found out what they were doing to their Nanny, but really made their abduction and torture make sense and seem somewhat justifiable. As for the No Prisoners case, I really enjoyed the storyline that this group of characters had, I thought their renegade solders story was interesting and how the death of the general left them rather lost in the desert was interesting. It was also cool to see someone from Morgan and Del Rio's past come up. I also thought that Del Rio's injury in this book was a good way to make the team seem more human even though it's not going to be a permanent injury. To that same note, I appreciated that we saw Justine in a vulnerable place following her experience in Mexico. I thought her reaction was appropriate to how her character has been written and that it was really nice to see her knowing what was going on but that not helping her work through the situation. It seemed very really and very honest.
2 minor issues: 1) this book has spoilers for Private Games which I was not expecting. 2) Justine calling her self little sister, over and over and over again. Like it just seemed like a weird way to pep talk yourself.
This book was so much better than the Private #1 Suspect, and may have been better than Private. While Tommy and the mob where in this book they had a much smaller role that did ensure that they will show up again but they were not over arching. This is really great because that was one of my big gripes with #1 Suspect.
As for the cases in this book I really enjoyed how different the 2 cases were. They were both very interesting and I was trying to figure them out up until all was revealed. The Harlow case was stomach turning when you found out what they were doing to their Nanny, but really made their abduction and torture make sense and seem somewhat justifiable. As for the No Prisoners case, I really enjoyed the storyline that this group of characters had, I thought their renegade solders story was interesting and how the death of the general left them rather lost in the desert was interesting. It was also cool to see someone from Morgan and Del Rio's past come up. I also thought that Del Rio's injury in this book was a good way to make the team seem more human even though it's not going to be a permanent injury. To that same note, I appreciated that we saw Justine in a vulnerable place following her experience in Mexico. I thought her reaction was appropriate to how her character has been written and that it was really nice to see her knowing what was going on but that not helping her work through the situation. It seemed very really and very honest.
2 minor issues: 1) this book has spoilers for Private Games which I was not expecting. 2) Justine calling her self little sister, over and over and over again. Like it just seemed like a weird way to pep talk yourself.