“It terrified me rigid – but there was no way in a million years I could put it down … utterly compulsive”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Any fan of James Patterson can relax, even though this is a collaboration, it is typical Patterson, easy Sunday afternoon matinee, without the need to change channels or find the DVD!

Don’t be put off by the 400+ pages, the paragraphs are short, some a whole word, so you will easily read cover to cover in a day, with time left over to complete any guilt inducing tasks.

Within the first 10 pages, you have witnessed a gruesome murder, met the hero and set off on a fast paced trek through a reporter’s quest for the truth.

Nick Daniels, the reporter and hero, holds your hand and takes you on a somewhat predictable journey, through a mob war with the usual suspects of good cop, bad cop, where nothing too bad is going to happen.

Although the pages tend to turn themselves, there is little substance to tax your memory of who’s who, a few too many “but that wasn’t the half of it” and “as I was to find out”, which did little to raise any feeling of suspense.

This is not typical Patterson graphic horror, making you want to close your eyes to miss the scene, there are no snakes and milk of “Kiss the Girls”, that still makes me shudder when I recall it.

It is, however, a pleasant afternoon read, with a few twists, even if they are easily read and cute moments with his blind niece, Elizabeth, “bravest kid I know”.

 

Reviewed by:

Siobhan Dale

Added 2nd July 2015