Review: Private Rio

Private Rio by James Patterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book takes place right after "Private Paris" ended but reading "Paris" first isn't necessary: "Paris" ends with Jack preparing to return to L.A. but getting a call from his office telling him his presence is requested in Rio.

The 2016 Olympic games are coming up and Private has been hired to ensure their safety. It has been requested that Jack personally oversee things. Hence, the diversion from Paris. The book then goes into a back story about the 2014 World Cup and how two young children died of a mysterious virus, called Hydra, and also introduces us to Rio's head of office, Tavia, Jack's love interest for this one. The secondary plot is the kidnapping of teenage twin girls, whose parents are also Private clients, who are in Rio doing missionary work under assumed names.

Okay, my biggest beef with this book is that the way I read it, it implies Justine and Tavia are the only employees with whom Jack has ever had a romantic relationship. Um, hello? What about Colleen, the former employee Jack came home from a business trip to find murdered in his bed - the premise for the second book of this series? Though I'm guessing what Sullivan meant, since he wrote that book too, is that Jack vowed not the date another employee after he and Justine broke up for the umpteenth time and Justine moved on.

Also disappointing was the repeat of the "abducted child to get to daddy" plot line. And the token widower; seriously, what is it with this series and widowed characters?! (At least it wasn't Tavia so points there).

Despite those gripes, I did feel this was a pretty good book overall. I liked that even though it didn't take place in L.A., once again Jack was prominently featured and the staff from the L.A. office was brought in as well, making this one, like "Paris" seem part of the series instead of stand alone. The pace was good, though it felt more emphasis was put on finding the twins than securing the games, which made the subtitle feel off.* It was pretty obvious early on why the history lesson involving hydra happened and how that was going to tie into the games. Once the kidnapping was resolved, the climax of the hydra story was pretty riveting - at one point I even found myself yelling "You're not helping, Justine!!" to my thankfully otherwise empty car. And I did appreciate the nod to the London games, which Private also provided security for, not going smoothly - another plot line repeated but at least that was acknowledged!

*The version my library has is "The Games," not "Rio."

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