A review by wingsofareader
I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge
3.0
I cannot help but enjoy Michael Bennett - at least more than Alex Cross, who was my introduction to James Patterson. I enjoy the crew of unruly and rambunctious kids and the unruly and rambunctious priest/grandfather.
I admit that I am a trifle less thrilled with this one if only because it seems that, as with Alex Cross' books, it looks like now Patterson is introducing a Big Bad nemesis, and I find that tiresome. Possibly, I am unique in this, but I find that once Patterson's (and his many lackeys'/writing minions') characters get obsessed with a particular villain, the entire series gets too bogged down, and the possibilities for variable crimes, locations, motivations etc become far more limited in scope.
Further, for some reason, it has seemed to me at least, that the 'main" nemeses seem to have, oddly, less developed reasons for their depravity, than the one-off villains - which seems counter-intuitive to me. KM and MP - sure, they've been through some rough life experiences but given the level of violence they demonstrate and sheer body count and the bloodthirsty glee they seem to find in killing in grisly and gruesome manners, you'd think they'd have complex reasons for each and every murder. But ... not so much. Where the one-off killers seem to have complex and detailed reasons for every bit of gore and nuanced clue they leave behind for Patterson's sleuths to suss out, the long-term baddies seem to simply be working out a boatload of bitter angst that life just didn't treat them better, overall, even though in general, they are now powerful, influential and frankly just plain full of themselves.
I want to keep enjoying Mike Bennett and his gang of misfit hooligans, his reasons to keep some humanity and humour in his life. I don't want another oh-looky-a-bad-guy-with-a-many-book-vendetta.
Please, please, please - and know that I would never, ever wish this about a flesh and blood human, even one as horrifically heinous as these characters - but please let MP get blown to smithereens in Gone. Seriously.
I admit that I am a trifle less thrilled with this one if only because it seems that, as with Alex Cross' books, it looks like now Patterson is introducing a Big Bad nemesis, and I find that tiresome. Possibly, I am unique in this, but I find that once Patterson's (and his many lackeys'/writing minions') characters get obsessed with a particular villain, the entire series gets too bogged down, and the possibilities for variable crimes, locations, motivations etc become far more limited in scope.
Further, for some reason, it has seemed to me at least, that the 'main" nemeses seem to have, oddly, less developed reasons for their depravity, than the one-off villains - which seems counter-intuitive to me. KM and MP - sure, they've been through some rough life experiences but given the level of violence they demonstrate and sheer body count and the bloodthirsty glee they seem to find in killing in grisly and gruesome manners, you'd think they'd have complex reasons for each and every murder. But ... not so much. Where the one-off killers seem to have complex and detailed reasons for every bit of gore and nuanced clue they leave behind for Patterson's sleuths to suss out, the long-term baddies seem to simply be working out a boatload of bitter angst that life just didn't treat them better, overall, even though in general, they are now powerful, influential and frankly just plain full of themselves.
I want to keep enjoying Mike Bennett and his gang of misfit hooligans, his reasons to keep some humanity and humour in his life. I don't want another oh-looky-a-bad-guy-with-a-many-book-vendetta.
Please, please, please - and know that I would never, ever wish this about a flesh and blood human, even one as horrifically heinous as these characters - but please let MP get blown to smithereens in Gone. Seriously.