private london

private london
private #4
james patterson & mark pearson
suspense/thriller
little brown & co.
published 2012

SOMETIMES WHEN THE NIGHTMARE ENDS - THE TERROR IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING...For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private - the world's most exclusive detective agency - saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has followed her to London, and now it is down to former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, head of Private London, to save her all over again. Carter draws on the global resources of Private in a desperate race against the odds. But the clock is ticking...Private may be the largest and most advanced detection agency in the world, but the only thing they don't have is the one thing they need - time.

This whole thing was very confusing.  Warning!!!  This review will contain spoilers for Private Games!!!

This is #4 in the Private series.  It comes after Private Games and that's what makes it confusing.  I made sure numerous times that I was reading the books in the right order.  When I was reading Private Games it is mentioned that a plane carrying most of Private London's head staff had crashed, killing everyone on board sometime before the book begins.  Later on, Jack Morgan tells Peter Knight that the plane was sabotaged so someone had murdered their colleagues.  And then that's it.  The rest of the book is focused on the Olympics.

Private London takes place well before the events in Private Games.  It's described as a prequel, but all it does is introduce characters that are all dead off page between two books.  I don't get it.  Private Berlin, next in the series has nothing to do with London so I'm assuming soon there will be another book based in London that will address the search for the killer?

Private London is full of fun little twists and turns and a few surprises although the biggest surprise wasn't very surprising to me.  Does that make sense?  When the mastermind was uncovered I had already had that person pegged as the one.  Still, the journey to get to that point was fun.

I'd say that the characters were funny, intriguing and enjoyable, but who cares?  Most of them will be dead before you read this book!

So weird.