Review: Private London

Private London by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 So it turns out this is supposed to be the third book in the series, not the fourth, as a few of the main characters from this book are mentioned in "Games" in a such a way that there is little continuity between the two books and may as well have taken place in different detective agencies rather than the same one. Apparently, for "Games" Patterson and his co-author for that book wanted to go a different direction with the main character? I really don't know but perhaps having the same co-author throughout the series would help.

At any rate, on her 12th birthday, Hannah Shapiro was kidnapped and ultimately rescued by Private owner Jack Morgan just moments after being forced to watch the rape and murder of her mother. Sent to London with a somewhat new identity to attend school and placed in the care of Private's London office, Hannah is finishing her first year of college when she's kidnapped again.

With Jack stuck in L.A. under Federal watch as a material witness in some case that also doesn't seem to have any continuity with the rest of the series (unless I missed something), Jack relies on his head of the London office, Dan Carter (who was supposed to be covertly keeping tabs on Hannah) to get her back. In addition to the kidnapping, there appears to be a serial killer targeting young women and possibly harvesting their organs - which makes finding Hannah seem all that more dire. And the lead detective for the London police just happens to be Carter's ex-wife, Kirsty.

I don't know that I would say this was better or worse than the other London based book. I feel Dan Carter is a stronger character than Peter Knight, however, but in some regards Carter would have been too rough for that story line. The tension between Carter and Kirsty was realistic as they both recalled different elements of their marriage on what would have been their 10th anniversary, but the subplot of the serial killer almost seemed like fluff rather than really adding dimension to the book.

There were a couple of plot twists along the way that made for good listening but I also felt there were too many characters and it was hard to keep them all straight. So after awhile, I stopped trying. While Hannah's and the serial killer's plot lines were wrapped up, there were some loose ends that would indicate the original intent may have been for these characters to reappear so it's a little disappointing that won't happen based on what is revealed in "Games."

Sullivan is the third co-author in the first four books of this series, but is also the co-author in the next one as well so hopefully, "Berlin" will feel like it's part of the series, not more of a stand alone book that has some of the same characters as the books in the series that came before it.



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