Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson

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Alex Cross #19

            This was a two-fer! Alex is called out on two different cases in this book. One on Christmas Eve and the second on Christmas Day. 

            After doing his Christmas good dead by catching a guy who has been robbing the poor box at the local church, Alex is all prepared to celebrate the holiday with his family.  The Christmas Eve traditions just get rolling when the inevitable phone call comes. A family is being held hostage. Someone's ex-husband has had a Christmas melt down and is holding his ex-wife, his two kids and her new husband at gun point. Alex saves the day at the risk of his own life as Christmas Eve moves into Christmas Day.

            By the time he finally makes it home, his family is asleep in their beds, while visions of sugar plums dance in their heads. Alex is only too happy to join them. But before he can even get into REM sleep, much less visualize any sugar plums, the phone rings yet again.

            This time he is called in to help corral a known terrorist who has been seen in Grand Central Station. This woman leads them a merry chase, but they nab her eventually.  In a rather disturbing scene, they break her down and she tells them that she is only the point person for the rest of the cell who are stealing chemicals needed to create a massive explosion. Alex uses his special skills to suss out the fact that she has not given them the whole truth of the matter. He and his partner then go out into the winter wonderland that the city has become and track down the rest of the group and the chemicals.

Read my reviews of other Alex Cross stories, Cross Fire, and other books by James Patterson, Zoo , I, Michael Bennet ,  11th Hour , Guilty Wives , Private #1 Suspect , Private Games , The Christmas Wedding , Kill Me If You Can , Now You See Her.

Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

            I did not like this book. There were a few moments when I thought I glimpsed some potential, but mostly I just shook my head in disbelief that James Patterson allowed his name to be associated with it.

            The story revolves around Jack Oz. He is so passionately convinced that unprovoked animal attacks against humans are increasing world-wide he drops out of grad school to study the phenomenon and try to inform society. And yet, he chooses to keep a several hundred pound chimpanzee in his New York apartment. Not only that, but he has an elderly woman and his girlfriend come in to the apartment to care for the animal when he travels. Seriously? Seriously?? Does he not listen to his own information???

            Eventually, the global animal attack situation becomes so severe it cannot be ignored any longer. The federal government takes steps to handle the situation and Oz is brought in to consult. At one point a federal officer tells him that the operation has been code named Zoo, but doesn't know what it's supposed to stand for. Seriously? You are going to use the operation's code name for the book title, but you lack the imagination to think up what it stands for??

            And for my last gripe, the problem is never resolved. Human leaders move to Greenland where there are very few animals to worry about and there they sit. No resolution. Neither the humans nor the animals win. No potential solution is found. The story just peters out.

            Animals gone wild is a fine premise, and a convincing reason for their altered behavior is determined, but nothing is resolved. This is just a sad piece of work that needs some heavy editing and revising. Don't bother to read it.

I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Michael Bennett #5

          Michael Bennett is a New York police detective. He is invited to join a task force planning to bring down a notoriously violent Columbian drug lord when he comes to the city. Things don't go quite as planned; a running gun battle ensues moving from Madison Square Garden through Macy's department store. Bennett finally runs down and arrests the drug lord, but not before both civilians and cops are gunned down.

          The drug lord starts ordering retribution hits from his jail cell, starting with the people who knew about his impending visit and continuing with having the judge hearing his case assassinated in her own courtroom. Among others, he targets two of Michael Bennett's ten children. The boys are shot but not killed, and the would-be assassin is killed instead for missing his targets.


          Since trying to kill Bennett's kids did not get him to back off, the drug lord then tries a multimillion dollar bribe, which Bennett turns down flat. Then during the second day of Bennett's testimony at trial, an incredible, but successful, escape attempt is made. Shortly thereafter, a truck bomb is discovered outside Bennett's apartment building, one powerful enough to destroy the entire block. The decision is made to put Bennett's family in Witness Protection.

          The story ends as they are headed off to begin their new lives.

          This was not a bad story, but a couple of points strained my credulity. First, it apparently never occurs to Bennett that his family might become a target for the drug lord. Even after his kids are shot, he doesn't put it together. I'd think a detective, who should be suspicious and paranoid by nature, would not have needed that explained to him. Also, how are you going to put a single father with ten children - children of varying ethnicities - into witness protection effectively? I'm having trouble imagining that. I also had trouble throughout the story with the idea that Bennett did not move his brood out of the family home, except to go to the family vacation home, which is a yearly event. He arrested a guy who has a reputation for not just killing his enemies, but killing their families as well. There again, lack of suspicion and paranoia.

          Other than that, though, it was an entertaining read.

11th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Peatro

Women's Murder Club #11
 

Read by January LaVoy

            This installment of the Women's Murder Club has a pregnant Lindsay Boxer faced with a series of bizarre murders. She is called to a scene at a compound built by a man who liked his privacy. The new owners are not there much, but there is a small staff residing at the location. Upon arriving in the garden of the compound, Lindsay is shown two decapitated heads, one old, and one still relatively fresh. They are displayed on the patio surrounded by freshly picked flowers. As if this is not weird enough, further investigation turns up more skulls of varying ages buried on the grounds.

            Suspicion naturally turns first to the owner of the property who years earlier was acquitted of murdering his wife whose body has never been found. Try as she might, Lindsay cannot make a case against him for any of the dead women. In looking farther afield, Lindsay finds an odd and reclusive woman squatting in the servants' quarters at the compound. She does not seem quite sane, and does admit to displaying the heads in the garden. Unfortunately, a case cannot be made against her for the murders. But Lindsay does not give up and eventually discovers her murderer.

            While trying to identify the skulls and solve their murders, Lindsay is having problems at home. An old flame of Joe's calls and leads Lindsay to believe that Joe is having an affair with her. Lindsay, apparently suffering from a bad case of hormones and pregnancy brain, throws him out without letting him tell his side of the story. It turns out she is wrong and she has to deal with her marriage woes while trying to do her, always difficult, job.

            This is pretty typical James Patterson fare, although the squatter in the servants' quarters is particularly odd, and Lindsay's lack of perspective with Joe is a bit out of character. It was a good way to spend some time, and it was nice to catch up with the girls in the Club.

Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis

 Audio book Read by January LaVoy

          The next time I get irritated with my husband, I'll try to remember the husbands in this book. They'd make any ordinary jerk look like a prince.

          Four women decide to have a girls’ weekend in Monte Carlo. Right away you know these are not ordinary housewives. They are the wives of rich and powerful men. While partying at the casino, they meet a group of men and decide to make it a more private party on one guy’s yacht. Adulterous sex ensues, and in various states of inebriated exhaustion, everyone on the yacht sleeps.

          They are rudely awakened by a SWAT team early the next morning, and are marched off to police headquarters where they are interrogated as terrorists. Each of the women is shocked and horrified to discover that two of the men they had been with had been murdered in the early morning hours. They are even more shocked to find that the four of them are the prime suspects.

          After being vilely treated by the police and an alleged confession coerced out of one of the wives, they are all arrested and charged with the murders, either as perpetrators or accessories. They are sent to prison in France to await trial.

          Months later, they go to court. As witnesses are called, it becomes apparent that someone is actively working against them. Repeatedly, the women listen as people who could exonerate them perjure themselves in court. It quickly becomes apparent that the wives are going to be convicted and spend the rest of their lives in a French prison for something they didn’t do.

          They are pressured to confess, and are offered vastly lighter sentences if all four of them do. But one of them refuses. She will not confess to a crime she did not commit and knows her friends did not commit either. She knows they are all innocent of murder and is determined to prove it. But, all four go to prison, never to see their homes or families again.

The holdout bides her time, learning to tolerate the nasty conditions in the prison. She refuses to break down, even under torture, refusing to confess to the murders she and her friends have been convicted of. And, she eventually escapes from prison and finds the proof she needs to exonerate herself and her fellow wives.

          During the entire ordeal, the husbands are distant, unhelpful and actively working to procure the confessions the French police so desperately want. They may believe their wives deserve to be punished for their infidelity, but to allow them to be sent to a foreign prison for life seems a little extreme to me.

          This was a fast-paced thriller with lots of interesting twists. It is a very typical James Patterson offering. This won’t go down in history as the great American novel, by any stretch of the imagination, but was a pretty entertaining read.

Private: #1 Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

          Jack Morgan #2

          I actually read the third book in this series, Private Games,  before I read this one. They have little in common except both offices are owned by Jack Morgan and are part of his investigation and security business, Private. That being said, both are pretty good books.

          This story centers on Jack Morgan himself. Jack strikes me as real dog with little impulse control. He sleeps with lots of women, and breaks their hearts, albeit unintentionally. That probably appeals more to male readers than it did to me. He doesn’t seem to have had a particularly easy youth, but he has managed to make a success of himself and the business his father left him.

          The story begins with Jack returning home from a grueling overseas trip, dropping his bags in the entry and heading straight for a shower. Upon getting out of the shower and heading entering his bedroom, he is met with the nasty sight of a former lover shot dead in the middle of his bed.

          Naturally, the police believe Jack is the murderer. He is arrested for the crime. And the police are simply uninterested in digging any deeper. The frame the real murderer cobbled together has Jack well and truly surrounded.

          But Jack has the resources of his company and his staff to delve into the details more deeply. They all work tirelessly to prove Jack did not perpetrate this crime.

          I got the feeling this book was directed more at a male audience, but it was engaging and enjoyable. I don’t think this is a series I will my to-be-read list, but you may want to add it to yours.

         

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.

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

          I listened to the audio book version of this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it.   The premise would have seemed a bit farfetched, except that I know someone it happened to.  Gaby gets a marriage proposal, not so unreal. It happens all the time.  But, two other men decide they cannot let her get away without a fight.  They both propose as well.  Now she is juggling three proposals.

          She also has grown children that she hasn’t seen as a group since their father died several years earlier. She decides to use the wedding as a way to get the family together for Christmas.  She plans the wedding for Christmas Day, but throws in a twist.  She will not reveal the identity of the groom until the ceremony is about to begin!

          There is a lot of fun and excitement, and several small twists to keep the action moving. Gaby keeps her kids in the loop via video messages that she records, copies and sends to them all. At the moment of truth, Gaby announces the name of the groom and they are duly wed. The part that amazes me is that the author leads us to believe that Gaby’s relationship with the pair of suitors she refused will not change.

          That point aside, I recommend this book to those who enjoy love stories and family dramas. It’s a quick, fun read and thoroughly enjoyable.