Book Review: Private (Jack Morgan #1) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Summary: 
Former Marine and CIA agent Jack Morgan inherits his father's renowned security and detective business--along with a case load that tests him to the breaking point. Getting to the bottom of an NFL gambling scandal and an unsolved LAPD investigation into 18 school girl slayings would be enough.  On top of all that, Morgan takes on solving the horrific murder of his best friend's wife.

As Morgan fights the urge to exact brutal revenge on that killer, he has to navigate a workplace imbroglio that could blow the roof off his elite agency. And it's an especially explosive situation . . . because the love affair is his own.
 
Release Date:  June 28, 2010
Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Source: Borrowed from my Mom

Review:
I borrowed this book from my Mom and decided to read it because I liked the look of the cover.  James Patterson's work is reliable entertainment, usually good for a fast---if somewhat lacking---read.  His books have such short chapters, and so many chapters, that they never take me more than an afternoon to finish.  (See my previous post about the choppy sentences and extremely short chapters here). 

There were several things that turned me off to Private.  I didn't like Jack.  Even though I empathized with his difficult childhood and experience in the military, I did not like him as a character.  I hated the way he treated women, especially the women he was in relationships with.  I don't like sports or the mob so to read about the two in combination was another major turn-off for me.  

I did like the plot twists and the way the book was resolved.  It looks like Jack Morgan will be a feature character in Patterson's new series, so some things were left open-ended but the main plot points were resolved.

In the future, I'm going to stick to Patterson's softer books---books like Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas and Sam's Letters to Jennifer.  His thrillers just don't do it for me any more.



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