The Christmas Wedding /Review

James Patterson & Richard DiLallo

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 17, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031609739X
ISBN-13: 978-0316097390

Description

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married--and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day--she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.
But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise--she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season.

Review

By Brenda Casto (US)

Gaby Summerhill's family hasn't been together for Christmas since her husband Peter died, but that's about to change. You see Gaby has been proposed to by three men, and the thing is she is going to have a Christmas wedding, and she isn't going to to disclose who the groom will be until the wedding.So the only way her children, Emily, Claire Lizzie and Seth will know who she is marrying is to come home for Christmas.
I loved getting to know Gaby's children. Each of them were dealing with their own issues making this an interesting story. One was having marital troubles, one had a husband fighting cancer, another is a very successful lawyer who is married but puts in way to much time at her job, and finally one is trying to get a book published. Each child's story would have made for an interesting book in itself but roll them together and it made the plot of this book move along nonstop. I loved the plan Gaby came up with to get her children home, an idea that was totally new, hooking me, making me wonder myself who she would marry. There was even a twist thrown in that actually surprised me.
Overall if you enjoy family stories where the family seems as real as a your next door neighbors, and want to feel a bit of the magic of the holiday season then your going to want to pick this book up. Normally when I think of James Patterson I think of action packed thrillers, but he can certainly pull of a nice Christmas time family story as well. Highly recommended!

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Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson &Marshall Karp/Book Review

Kill Me If You CanJames Patterson (Author), Marshall Karp (Author)

Hardcover: 384 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (August 29, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316097543

ISBN-13: 978-0316097543

Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches

Product Description

Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts--until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge.

Trailing him is the Ghost, the world's greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile hit: killing Walter Zelvas, a top member of the international Diamond Syndicate. There's only one small problem: the diamonds he was supposed to retrieve from Zelvas are missing. Now, the Ghost is on Bannon's trail--but so is a rival assassin who would like nothing more than to make the Ghost disappear forever. From "America's #1 storyteller" (Forbes) comes a high-speed, high-stakes, winner-take-all thrill ride of adrenaline-fueled suspense.

REVIEW

It's the story of a young ex-Marine, Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran, who finds a bag full of diamonds, worth several million dollars. He decides to keep the treasure, and a blood-soaked series of events ensues, for the Russian mob has a strong "proprietary" interest in those diamonds.

A pivotal event in this novel reminded me of a device that I have seen used in movies. One of the actors, at a critical juncture, turns to the viewers and points something out or offers some explanation. It just seems awkward to me, and I've never seen it done well. Similarly, a character in this book, at about the half-way point, explains that readers have been purposely misled about an important plot element! So a stunning shift in the story made no sense until we had the "inside" info. I found it all rather confusing and felt a little editing could have gone a long way.

Too much time is spent on international tourist hot spots in Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, and Nassau. These travelogues do not really keep the story moving. Also, some of the villains are almost comically over the top and stretch credulity.

However, author James Patterson (writing here with Marshall Karp) is a master craftsman of the page-turner. I have read and reviewed fourteen of his works for this site and (almost) never had trouble finishing them, even those I did not rate highly. It seems to me that Patterson's fail-safe method is to juggle three or more intriguing elements at the same time. At least one of them will keep most readers engaged.

The book weaves two taboos into the plot. A college professor has an affair with one of her students. The other taboo is far more scandalous. Many readers will find this part of the book revolting, although the authors handle it in an almost matter-of-fact manner.

There's nothing profound here. But there are stretches of high excitement, and I did keep wondering what would happen to those diamonds and the man who took them.

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Now You See Her by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge/Book Review

Now You See Her

James Patterson (Author), Michael Ledwidge (Author)

"The prolific Patterson seems unstoppable." (USA Today )

"James Patterson knows how to sell thrills and suspense in clean, unwavering prose." (People )

"Patterson's novels are sleek entertainment machines, the Porsches of commercial fiction, expertly engineered and lightning fast." (Publishers Weekly ) 

Description

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York--including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes.

Nina's secret life began 18 years ago. She had looks to die for, a handsome police-officer husband, and a carefree life in Key West. When she learned she was pregnant with their first child, her happiness was almost overwhelming. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity.

Now, years later, Nina risks everything she's earned to return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled. In a story of wrenching suspense, James Patterson gives us his most head-spinning, action-filled story yet--a Hitchcock-like blend of unquenchable drama and pleasure.

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Hardcover: 400 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (June 27, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316036218

ISBN-13: 978-0316036214

Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

REVIEW

Books that Patterson writes with Ledwidge have been some of my favorites. This one is up to their usual standards. It's a twisty, turny tale that moves very quickly. Nina's a great character. I loved the pacing of the book and finished it in one afteroon! The quick pacing of this book is what raised it from a 3-star to a 4-star read for me. I was in the mood for something fast and wouldn't require a lot of thinking. This book was perfect for me.

Some things in the book are more than a bit too coincidental and there's melodrama enough for three books, but this is still a fun, summer thriller. I am glad I read it and think that some people that are bummed on Patterson might enjoy this book more than some of his more recent ones. Try a sample, and I think this book will hook you from the start as it did me. It's so easy to get caught up and swept away before you know it. Overall, great beach read. Perfect for summer vacation, and just in time!

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The Postcard Killers by James Patterson &Liza Marklund /Book Review

The Postcard Killers

James Patterson (Author), Liza Marklund (Author)

DESCRIPTION

Paris is stunning in the summer

NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him--he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each cafe through the eyes of his daughter's killer.

The killing is simply marvelous

Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard to the local newspaper that precedes each new victim.

Wish you were here

Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm--and they think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet.

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PRAISES:

"The Man Who Can't Miss" (Lev Grossman )

"Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves the plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind." (Michael Connelly )

"Patterson's novels are sleek entertainment machines, the Porsches of commercial fiction, expertly engineered and lightning fast." (Publishers Weekly )

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Paperback: 464 pages

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (July 12, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0446569941

ISBN-13: 978-0446569941

Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches

REVIEW

The two twentyish charming Americans tour Europe, but are uninterested in the sights. Instead the pair selects nice looking victims to butcher with knives. They send postcards warning the police they are coming to kill and afterward send pictures of their gruesome endeavors.

For six months NYPD Detective Jacob Kanon hunt the pair though he is always a few steps behind them. He lives for his obsession to butcher the two punks who murdered his twenty-one years old daughter Emily and her husband Clive. They send a postcard to reporter Dessie Larsson implying Stockholm is next following Berlin's homicides. Police Superintendent Duval refuses to protect Larsson, but unshaven Jacob arrives feeling this time he will find the pair who ended his life when they ended his daughter's life.

The serial killer cat and mouse game starts off with a powerful suspense but the latter half of the thriller feels padded. The killers are a frightening amoral pair while compulsive out of control demanding Jacob should have been deported for his behavior; though readers will empathize with his loss he is not likable as he seems to be a pale imitation of Liam Neeson's Mills in Taken. Still his is an entertaining tale as the audience anticipates the confrontation between the reporter and the crazed cop vs. the Postcard Killers.

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