Private Games by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan

               Jack Morgan #3

               I have not read the previous two books in this series, but Private: #1 Suspect, the first book in the series is on my to-be-read list. A bit of research tells me that the first two books are set in LA, and have a slightly different set of characters. So I’ll give it a try, based on how well I enjoyed this book, and see how it goes. 

               The story here takes place in the near future, just before and during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.  It was kind of odd hearing future dates for next month!  I listened to this one on audio book, and enjoyed it.  Techno-thrillers and sports stories are not generally my favorites, but this one wasn’t bad.

               We had a nut job and his three handmaidens from hell bent on creating chaos at the Olympic Games.  Patterson and Sullivan did a nice job of making them creepy and twisted. And, I felt badly for the folks they threw into the path of the Private investigators to mislead the investigation.  And, of course, the 3-year-old twins of the main character were a hoot.  God forbid I should ever run into kids that bratty, but it makes for entertaining reading.

               I was a little taken aback by the brutality and gore of the initial scenes at the beginning of the book, but the first murder was by far the nastiest and while the assorted nut jobs remained evil and destructive, the level of nastiness went way down after the first chapter or so.

               I probably will have no desire to reread this book, but it was pretty entertaining, and I’ll gladly check out the beginning of the series. This is a book I’m sure my husband would really enjoy.