Having read Patterson's Kill Me If You Can, I thought at first that this book was going to be more of the same. The first few chapters are filled with the sort of ham-fisted dialog that makes English teachers cringe and Hollywood producers drool. The entire section of the book where Nick Daniels is in Africa are full of guns and action and car chases (well, jeep chases)... and such literary gems as "We're being attacked. I'm serious, man." "Faster, Alan! We've got to go faster! You can go faster, can't you?" Somebody alert the Nobel and Pulitzer people, we have a contender!
But as soon as Daniels returns to New York, and the main story arc begins, the quality of the dialog (and the writing in general) improves. It's clear-cut and obvious when one of the co-writers passes the story on to the other. (Do we have Patterson to blame for the Africa story? His co-author Howard Roughan? Perhaps we'll never know...) I'm not saying that Patterson shouldn't write with co-authors; it's obviously worked well for him, and I've been happy with the team efforts on the Women's Murder Club mysteries. But when one part of a book is really pretty good, and another part is so terribly bad, it says one of two things: either Patterson is writing the crummy stuff, and his lesser-known co-author is the one that should be making the big bucks; or Patterson is writing the good stuff, and he (and his agent) needs to do a better job of choosing co-authors. And, maybe, do a little bit of clean-up editing?
Overall, I did enjoy this story. It's not a mystery; I mean, there are some whodunit aspects to the story, some questions that need to be answered. But the book is more about the action and suspense, with mobsters and hired killers and little girls with bombs tied to their chests, for crying out loud! That brings up another point that needs to be made: this book has some pretty gruesome moments in it. When the prologue of the book has a mob lawyer getting his eyeballs cut out at a New York steakhouse, you kinda get a feel for the gore factor. Suffice to say that some people are killed (some in really grotesque ways - I'll never stick my head out of a limousine's sun roof); some mobsters' plans are foiled, the little girl is saved from blowing up, and Nick gets the lady in the end.
~Kris
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