Book Review: Private Screening by Richard North Patterson

Private Screening by Richard North Patterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Richard North Patterson sits on my list of top authors along with Ed McBain, Ginger Scott, Debbie Macomber, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a few non-fiction writers. I hadn't realized that this particular book had gotten past me. I thought I'd read all of RNP's earlier works. As it turns out, I somehow missed this first Tony Lord novel. Private Screening tells the story of the assassination of Presidential hopeful James Kilcannon (Kerry Kilcannon, younger brother of James, is the subject of a trilogy of RNP novels).

What follows is the trial of the shooter who Tony Lord defends. That story is interwoven as a wonderfully written flashback story with a present day  abduction. Stacy Tarrant is a famous singer, and former girlfriend of James Kilcannon. She was with James Kilcannon the night he was murdered. In the present day, she is in need of a good attorney and calls on Tony Lord even though she despises him for defending James' killer.

My thoughts on this book are basically the same as all of the other Richard North Patterson books I've read: they're brilliant. If you like crime novels, mysteries, court dramas and/or a mixture of some or all of those things, RNP is the writer for you.  In this particular novel, you're actually reading two novels in one. The fist novel is told in flashback and the second is in present day. But they're also interwoven and except for James Kilcannon, all of the other characters are in the past and present.

The two stories are interwoven so well, it's easy to keep track of what's going on. Many authors don't use the flashback so well. RNP nails it in this earlier work of his.

Tony Lord, our "hero" in this case, is obviously a good looking man. But his skill as a lawyer and his adoration for his son, Christopher are the two most attractive qualities of the character. If you'd already read "Silent Witness," the second Tony Lord novel, this novel gives you a look at how Tony Lord becomes a successful and much sought after attorney. In fact, he's similar to RNP's other attorney character, Christopher Paget. They are definitely different but both brilliant.

RNP tackles topics in his books that are usually controversial like gun control, abortion, the death penalty and so on. He researches like a madman before he writes and it definitely shows. In this particular novel, the reader will see how easy it's NOT to put on an insanity defense and it also tackles the subject of Vietnam Veterans who came home extremely different men and the issues attached to them as a result.

This one is an absolute must read. Every Richard North Patterson book should be on everyone's TBR list for at least a try. Chances are highly likely that even those who do not typically read the genre will be dragged in.

Like the late Ed McBain, who is probably the best mystery and crime novelist of all time, Richard North Patterson is right up there. Definitely 5 out of 5 stars!!!!!


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Book Review of "A Darkness Ascending" by Christobel Kent

This book from Christobel Kent is a part of a series of books that feature Sandro Cellini, a former cop turned private detective.  My first thoughts while delving into the book was that I probably should have read the preceding books first.  I had a hard time grasping who all of the characters were but I'm not sure if this was because the book simply moved too slow to get to the action or if reading the earlier books in the series would have sped that up for me.  There are a bunch of characters all introduced in the early chapters one on top of the other and I had a hard time connecting them to each other.

We do get a prologue that introduces Silvano Niccolo and his partner, Flavia.  It's a fairly simply prologue. Flavia is obviously putting down their newborn infant to bed.  And embedded in the chapter upon chapter of character introductions that follow, Silvano Niccolo is at a political rally or meeting of some sort and he collapses on the stage.

Then Flavia disappears and we find out she's committed suicide.  Or did she?  It's a weird plot of sorts and it is in some ways, a thriller.  Cellini is pulled into the case by Giuli, who as far as I can gather, is some type of foster daughter to Cellini.

This was a tougher mystery for me to read when I typically have no trouble getting drawn in quickly to mysteries in general.  I would not call the entire book flat but there really wasn't what I would call a "climax" here either.  It all kind of goes at one pace, and stays at one level.

I also didn't feel like I was in Italy either.  This could have taken place in the underground halls and alleyways of anywhere.  Except for the names of the characters and places which are in Italian, I didn't get any feel for any of the Italian political culture.

Overall, I would still recommend the book.  But, I would tell potential readers to start with the first book in the series as I think I would have had a better experience if I had done the same.  I gave it 4 stars because I thought it was "very good" with 3 stars being "good" and 5 stars being "excellent."  And I only subtracted a star because of the slow moving feeling.  I couldn't subtract stars for other things because it felt not fair since I hadn't read the other books that came before this one.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review of this book.

Review of "The Rainy Day Killer (Fourth Novel in the Donaghue-Stainer Crime Novel Series)" by Michael J. McCann

A man in a business suit offers the protection of his umbrella to an unsuspecting woman ... and several days later she turns up dead on a river bank, raped and strangled. The terrifying serial killer known in the press as the Rainy Day Killer is now hunting new victims in the city of Glendale ... whenever it rains.

Homicide Lieutenant Hank Donaghue leads the investigation as the killer begins to communicate directly to him through phone calls and grisly packages containing body parts of his victims. Assisted by FBI profiler Ed Griffin, Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer pursue an elusive predator who leaves no physical evidence behind.

The timing couldn't be worse, however, as Karen Stainer's attention is divided between the investigation and preparations for her upcoming wedding. Distracted and uncertain about her future, Stainer is furious when she learns that the Rainy Day Killer has followed her to Virginia, where the wedding will take place, and that he intends to make her his next victim!

I love a good mystery/crime novel. I love reading the characters as they work their case. Michael McCann does a great job here with lots of knowledge of how cases are worked from start to finish, even acknowledging that some cases remain open long term and sometimes they're put on a back burner so active cases can be solved before going back to a pursuit that requires the finding of more leads, etc. The author also shows us how politics works throughout a case, he shows how organizations battle over jurisdictions and how uncooperative jurisdictions can be to each other. It is all extremely real.

I enjoyed Lt. Donaghue and Detective Stainer. Their characters work enormously well together, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses. These two have each other's backs in all things. FBI profiler Ed Griffin was also a great addition to the team. He puts away the psychobabble and profiles from the perspective of law enforcement. I loved the pacing of the story. The clues came as a result of tracking down leads and good police work. I liked that both main characters are hero and heroine. Detective Stainer is tough and she's good at her job. Lt. Donaghue respects his partner and her abilities. The fact that Detective Stainer is marrying an FBI agent and he is assigned to assist in the case bridges a lot of possible gaps in communications between the GPD and the FBI, making the processing of evidence a bit better.

The whole relationship initiated by the Rainy Day Killer with Lt. Donaghue is brilliantly done. The RDK did the same in all of the previous states he's killed in and he seems to "like" Hank the best. I think the RDK's relationship with Hank does eventually cause him to slip up. He has to show off for Hank and let him know how crafty and smart he thinks he is. He's so arrogant, he even tells Hank when he decides his next kill will be Detective Stainer. And the climax is fantastic.

I usually use this part of my review to talk about what I didn't like about the book or how the book can be improved in some way. As nobody's perfect, I think the book is so well written, I have no real criticism of anything. I will use this part to note that the ePub file was "off." The number of pages left in a chapter was never right, the Table of Contents listed pages instead of chapters and the formatting throughout showed many half-filled pages. I think it's the file itself as none of my other ePub books in the app don't have this issue. It did not make reading difficult. Just a little note.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My honest review overall is that the book is excellent. I see it's part of a series. I'd like to read the three books that come before this one.

Review of "Poor Little Dead Girls" by Lizzie Friend

***SPOILER ALERT***

Sadie Marlowe is an ace lacrosse player who is recruited to play at one of the country's finest boarding school's: Keating Hall. She's the "scholarship" from Oregon. Her schoolmates are from wealthy families who come from big business, politics and her two roommates are actual British royalty. The "brother" school to Keating Hall is DeGraffenreid Academy. Sadie's newest friend, Jessica, who she met a summer lacrosse camp, describes the brother school's guys as "terrible-they're like mini corrupt politicians in training."

Just as she's getting settled in, Sadie is "kidnapped," complete with black covering thrown over her head and being drugged. She wakes to find herself tied to a chair in the center of a mysterious group of robed strangers who chant in Latin and a male who threatens Sadie to never speak of the experience of she dies. There she finds out she's being initiated into a secret society. Think Skull and Bones meets Freemasons meets The Illumninati.

Supposedly, their goal is to perform good works for the less fortunate and it appears they do sponsor some different organizations that do just that. However, what Sadie finds out is that their real goal is to create a completely new generation of wealthy, connected people who all have the "right genes" who can oversee the government, the country, the economy and even the world.

Sadie learns that her mother attended Keating Hall and that she was indeed part of a wealthy family. Also a huge question is what really happened to Anna, the student who mysteriously disappeared and was found dead the year before Sadie got there.

This story is about Sadie, her acceptance into a secret society of teenagers with wealthy parents who are also members of the society and how she deals with the strange experience of being accepted by her wealthier classmates who wouldn't look at her twice but for the society membership.

POOR LITTLE DEAD GIRLS is full of mystery and intrigue. Sadie even finds their secret laboratory where she finds her own eggs harvested and frozen for creating embryos. I have to admit, that seemed to be more creepy than learning about the mysterious death of Anna.

Sadie meets Jeremy early in the story and they become a couple. He also happens to be the other newest member of the secret society.

What this all finally boils down to is that the secret society members are responsible for the death of Sadie's mother and Anna's death who turns out to be related to Sadie and her mother. With the help of her friends, Sadie finds a way to make sure the secret society is brought to the public eye.

Overall, I give this book 5 stars because it's not the typical YA type of story I would read it kept me completely on my toes. I couldn't put it down. Sadie goes from shy and reserved to determined to find out the answers to all of the secrets. Lizzie Friend goes out on a different limb here to paint a darker story without the use of science fiction or sparkly vampires or medieval fantasy. There are places in the story where you might expect something to be more climactic but the story has an intense flow that takes you up to a really high peak and then lets you hang there for a while. Lizzie Friend doesn't give you the regular peaking escalation followed by the resolution. She takes up to the peak and lets you sit and squirm for a while. I kind of liked that difference.

I enjoyed Sadie's friend Jessica. She's not a member of the secret society but she stuck by Sadie throughout the whole book and was understanding when she finds out not only what Sadie has gotten herself into, she's a kick ass friend knowing the danger involved just by knowing the society exists. She along with Jeremy come up with a plan to get these these people exposed.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC I received was a PDF to read instead of an ePub book. It was a little bit more difficult to read because of the format. However, I can't take away stars for that. ARC's are sometimes given out in PDF form and you make adjustments. However, when this book publishes, you won't have any of these issues. So, I recommend you place it on your "to-read" list. The expected publish date is December 18th.

Review of "A Courtroom Massacre" by Mark Porto

I chose this book because the story idea fit right into one of my favorite genres to read: crime/drama/mystery.

I also abandoned this book because I couldn't go on with it.  I received this book in trade for an honest review from NetGalley and like every other book I received from NetGalley, it gets an honest review as well.

The book's premise, a man's family are victims of a robbery by gang members and what takes place in Johnny Bellows' life after he shoots the gang members, sounded like a good premise for a story.  It is still a good premise for a story.

However, this particular book, because of major issues concerning use of tense, punctuation, sentence structure, a lack of flow in dialogue and a whole host of other issues made this book impossible to complete.  As a reader, if one finds themselves having to go back and mentally correct what should be an easily read sentence, it'll eventually drive you crazy and frustrate you to the point that you can't continue to follow the story.

Anybody who writes a book gets some credit for being able to even accomplish that feat. And I do have respect for anyone who writes a book.  However, if you can't do a simple proofread or read what you write out loud to hear what it sounds like to everyone else, then don't bother to go through the effort of publishing it.

After finally abandoning the book, I took to Goodreads to see how others reviewed this book.  I also checked out Amazon to see what those reviews looked like.  What I was surprised to find was the author "correcting" one of his readers.  The author was actually explaining to the reader what he supposedly read incorrectly.  I thought books were for the reader to draw their own impressions, their own conclusions and to experience the story with the gift of their imagination.  But to correct a reader and tell them they're wrong about what they've read?  Perhaps it was that I picked up on the defensiveness of the author.

Don't spend money to attempt to read this particular book.  It's a mess!