PRIVATE by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro - BOOK - ADVANCE READING COPY
See all titles by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.
Jack Morgan is a war hero, owner of the prestigious Private Investigative firm Private, the designated good twin and the son of an abusive criminal who died the way he lived: creating competition between his sons.
Jack employs the best in their field of expertise to work at Private paying top dollar to those who show him the skill set and loyalty that Private has staked its reputation on for their high dollar clients that pay to get their dirty laundry clean. Jack needs the best right now because he has three high-profile cases going simultaneously and if the mob had their way it would be four, but Jack does have some morals.
He instructs one group to work with the police to track down the serial killing team who has been targeting high school girls and taunting the police with cryptic clues. The killer leaves trophies for the police to find and is escalating the killings while at the same time making sure no two look alike - unlike most serial killers. Jack also takes on a job for his uncle, the NFL team owner who suspects that games are being thrown and the ruin on the NFL would be something the franchise could not recover from. But worst of all Jack is dealing with his best friends' wife savage murder and the more that he uncovers the worse the information becomes about her character and the life she was leading. He is a man up for the task as he showed his ability to lead and deal with the gruesome strategies during his time in Afghanistan which still haunts him everyday with recurring dreams and missing pieces. Being a helicopter pilot showed him how to get in control and make the hard decisions of who stays and who must go.
Along with his business life Jack is struggling with his twin brother who is a borderline psychopath and full time obsessive gambler. He has to save him once again all the while questioning whether he is the one that has been calling him with death threats. Their father raised them to be pitted against one another and while Jack took the high ground his brother, Tom decided it was better to use your fists than your head. There is so much to sort out and so much damage done to personal relationships that Jack is always looking over his shoulder questioning himself with a "what if".
It is impossible for James Patterson to write anything less than a masterpiece but with Jack Morgan you find complex yes, but compassion as well. He is complicated and moves past his childhood tragedies to build a life that runs like his business with honor and discretion. I hope this book moves into a series as I would be interested to see how the conflict between the brothers plays out since Cain and Able have nothing on these two.
