Michael Ledwidge

Nothing seems to endear a protagonist to readers more than having a hero with clay feet, or at least a character who has domestic problems added to a strenuous professional life. Nothing can add humor and complexity to an on-duty policeman than having to grapple with mundane household problems with his children—all thirteen of them.

New York detective, Michael Bennett, is placed in charge of the investigation of high-end serial murders targeted by a well-endowed assassin who calls himself show more The Teacher. Pursuing leads involving widely-disbursed crimes is exhausting enough for any cop, but widower Bennett continually battles a newspaper snoop; his grizzled priest-father, the monsignor next door; and a home full of his flu-stricken, adopted orphans.

The well-planned murders of victims in such places as Ralph Lauren’s Polo haberdashery, the 21 Club, or the Platinum Star Hotel are as vividly detailed as The Teacher’s wardrobe is described in his off-beat process in fulfilling his manifesto against rich snobs. Name brands and exotic labels rifle through these pages as the killer arms himself with a catalog of high-tech instruments.

There are two matters that would have been satisfying to resolve in this story, but they remain undisclosed. What does happen to the poor-box thief that Father Seamus Bennett nabs? And, what becomes of the long-suffering, efficient Irish au pair, Mary Catherine, who helps Bennett so consistently and diligently since his wife, Maeve, died a year previously?

Despite the loss of these two subplot elements, the touching home-bound scenes of near-crisis epidemic resound with such touching, everyday charm that humanize Bennett—very humorous—that readers can ignore the nearly improbable heroics that draw the story’s conclusion.

This is one of the better novels from the Patterson group involving a realistic human detective confounded by everyday family problems with which most readers will be acquainted. Kudos for kiddos. show less

I'm not sure whether this was written for a YA audience or a middle grade one. Either way, it's a bad book. If it was written for a YA audience, it's quite possibly the worst traditionally published YA novel in existence.

I'm pretty sure I picked this up at a “going out of business” sale at a used bookstore. One thing you can count on, when a book has “James Patterson” stamped on the cover, is a fast-paced, quick read. The only positive thing I can say about The Dangerous Days of show more Daniel X is that it didn't take a lot of time to get through.

This book is terrible. Really, really awful. In usual James Patterson style (in this case, probably written almost entirely by Michael Ledwidge), each chapter is only a couple pages long, and it's all action all the time. After all, who needs pesky things like descriptions and characterization? Exclamation points, italics, and all caps were used in a lame attempt to up the story's excitement.

Daniel's parents were killed within the first few pages of the book, and their deaths packed absolutely no emotional punch. There was not one character in this book that I truly cared about. The only one I felt even a twinge for was Phoebe, a girl from Daniel's school, and that was only because Daniel's interest in her sent shivers of revulsion through me.

You see, Daniel was filled to the brim with superpowers. He was super-strong, super-fast, and super-intelligent. He could telepathically rewrite people's personalities and memories. He could shapeshift into something as large as an elephant or as small as a gnat. He could create living, breathing, real people out of thin air and then make them disappear again at will. His favorite people to create were his family members and a group of friends. One of those friends, Dana, was sort of his girlfriend. Yes, he was attracted to a girl he created with his mind, and, of course, she was attracted to him. Daniel could also read minds, a power he used in order to best figure out how to respond to Phoebe so that she would like him. This made Dana a little upset with him. As you can imagine, Daniel's girl troubles garnered no sympathy from me.

Despite all these many, many superpowers, Daniel almost died when an alien tried to kill him via a phone call. Depending on what the story called for, Daniel's powers either weren't up to snuff or were so powerful that it was a wonder he'd ever had any trouble at all.

It was painfully obvious that Ledwidge (and/or Patterson, if he even bothered to look over the manuscript) was trying to appeal to a younger audience. Pop culture name dropping was everywhere. There were mentions of the Lord of the Rings movies, Shia LaBeouf, The Grudge, and more. When the book wasn't trying really, really hard to appeal to “young'uns,” it was preaching at them. At one point, Daniel hitchhikes...and takes the time to warn readers that they shouldn't try it themselves. At another point, there's an anti-drug message, as Daniel sees an alien kid selling what he immediately assumes is drugs, grabs them, and stomps on them.

The heavy-handed messages for readers aren't just limited to PSAs. No, there are book recommendations as well. Daniel referred to Water for Elephants as “A honey of a story!” (54). What kind of teen thinks or talks like that? Later, he briefly interrupted the action to tell readers that he got his latest idea from The Iliad. That wouldn't have been so bad, except here's the full paragraph:

After all my thinking and searching through annals of every strategy and warfare book ever written, I'd actually gotten the ploy from The Iliad, by Homer. Achilles gets Hector outside Troy's walled gates to fight him one-on-one while both their armies watch. Check it out in The Iliad. Great story! (216)

Those last couple sentences were completely unnecessary and once again made Daniel seem less like a 15-year-old boy and more like a desperate adult begging kids to read books he thinks will be good for them.

This felt like a parody of action-filled science fiction. Its attempts at humor fell flat – including lame jokes every few sentences does not automatically make a book funny, and neither does including telepathic elephants and cheerleader cows.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Super fast read about a family, the Rourkes. Tom, a hedge fund millionaire was planning a wedding in the Hamptons. He invited his entire family for a reunion, choosing the location because it was close to "the glass house" where a wealthy man, Noah Sutton, was found murdered years earlier. Terry Rourke, now a cop, was interested in the case that his dad, assistant DA was prosecuting.
When Terry discovers some information about the case, he begins investigating, putting his family's life in show more danger.
I love quick reads, and this did not disappoint. I liked the style of writing, the quick pace, and the reveal. Some was a little far-fetched, but it was still a fun read. show less

Faye Walker is smart and lucky. After being orphaned and trailer-park poor, Faye manages to land an internship at the prestigious banking firm of Green Brothers Hale in Manhattan. However, when she finds out all her hard work will not be rewarded by being hired as a permanent employee, she concocts a complicated plan to steal three million dollars from GBH instead. This book is your basic rags-to-riches story set in modern times, where the girl gets everything she wants, including the hot show more guy. It would have been boring except for the dizzying plot twists of Faye’s intricate heist and how she handles the fallout. I found this story very implausible, yet immensely entertaining. show less