Howard Roughan

Found this to be a cut above the usual James Patterson novel. For that matter a couple of his recent books felt more like his early ones that got me hooked on him, and this being one of them. It has been years since I was at the point of being absorbed in one of his stories that I didn't want to put the book down. However, it got late (far too late at night) so I did practice common sense. To me when a story captures you like that it has a meaning. This is co-authored with Howard Roughan so show more it could be the new blood that brings back to life Patterson's stories.

Basically this is a story about the search for a very sophisticated clever serial killer on a vigilante spree in New York City. The killer is meting out justice to those obviously guilty that escaped justice under the law, due quirks in the law. The search and investigation is an interesting chess match between a very surprising college professor working with a well connected police detective and the killer who is leaving hints about his next victim at the crime scenes.

Like I said believe this is one of James Patterson's best recent works and anyone who enjoys a good story and does need overwhelming character development or, simply enjoys Patterson as a hidden pleasure will enjoy this latest adventure. show less

By my count this is the 46th James Patterson book I have read. And my reviews for them all look pretty much the same except for the Alex Cross novels which are my absolute favourite.

Why I love them:
1)Short chapters
2)Fast paced
3)Freaking unbelievable

Now although Patterson is criticised for joining up with other authors and writing several books a year, I find that I don't really care. I still really enjoy them and can read one in a day. I like that! As I have hundreds of books at home and I show more want to read them all. If they were all Patterson, they'd be done in no time at all. I do take a break from them time to time as I find myself turning into a bit of a detective. Plus then I want to trust no-one....
These co-written books aren't as good as the original Patterson ones but as long as they can hold my interest, I find that I don't care much. All in all, a decent book by my standards. (Now to save this and copy and paste it for the next 20 Patterson books I have on my TBR) show less

MURDER GAMES
JAMES PATTERSON
HOWARD ROUGHAN

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️
PUBLISHER Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Audio
PUBLISHED June 26, 2017
NARRATED Edoardo Ballerini

Murder Games is a riveting and fast-paced crime novel that plays right into your hands.

SUMMARY
A card playing serial killer is on the loose in New York City. A crime columnist has labeled him The Dealer. His victims appear to be total strangers. What unites them is that The Dealer is leaving a playing card behind at show more each scene that points to the identity of his next victim.

Dylan Reinhardt, Phd., is an Ivy League Psychology college professor with an attitude, who has written a book on abnormal psychology. That book, which is a introduction to psychopaths has arrived in the mail, and contained the first playing card, it was a blue harlequin-pattern king of clubs. Elizabeth Needham, the NYPD detective in charge of the case, asks Reinhardt for his help getting into the mind of the killer. As the killer continues his rampage and the media frenzy over the case reaches a fevered pitch, Dylan and Elizabeth must determine what the victims have in common in order to solve the case.

REVIEW
JAMES PATTERSON and HOWARD ROUGHAN have played all the right cards in MURDER GAMES. The plot is original, robust, unpredictable, and the pacing is perfect. The character development however, is what really makes the book. Reinhardt, 45, captures your attention immediately in chapter one, swaggering into a Yale lecture hall, with a narcissistic attitude who gets off on the adoration of his mere students. Outside of the classroom, he has a completely different persona, a much more likable guy. I really liked Detective Elizabeth Needham, who is quick-witted, feisty, smart, and prepared. But nothing really prepared her for the smug, acerbic college professor. The chemistry between the two of them was charged and delightful. Their quick dialogue was simply entertaining. I would have loved for Elizabeth to play a even larger role in the book, she is a great character and I love to see women in strong roles.

“Sometime you just know the sound of trouble before she walks in the room”

I listened to the audio version of the book and believe that Edoardo Ballerini’s narration was stellar. I enjoyed listening to his voice. show less

It’s been a while since I read a James Patterson book and even longer since I read one of his co-written adventures. I have to say they haven’t improved in my absence.

In this outing a dysfunctional family tries a last-ditch ‘save our family' bonding session on a sailing boat but things don’t go to plan. Shock horror.

The characters are universally one-dimensional and generally unbelievable. Evil lawyers, perfect mothers and cute-but-precious ten-year olds included. The writing is show more scattered with all sorts of pop culture references that will date the book terribly in a year or two and which are so clumsily inserted that it seems as if the authors are trying too hard to fit in with the cool kids rather than write a book for adults. In addition there are loads of unnecessary details such as ‘...he answered his Motorola 1000’ as if knowing what kind of phone the philandering lawyer uses somehow adds to the story rather than the word count. But the most annoying feature of this book is the predictability of the storyline. There are few surprises to be found among the clichés and it reads like one of the formulaic film scripts Hollywood is so enamoured with these days. There are multiple ‘in the nick of time’ rescues, ageing blokes having sex with gorgeous young women and all the good guys have Oprah-like moments of realising what’s really important in life. Ho hum.

If allowed I'd give this a 1.5 but can't bring myself to go all the way to 2 :) show less