James Patterson is known for suspense and thriller novels, moreover this was a best selling one so once I saw this book in my new library (yeah, we moved once again), I had to give it a read and I was not quite disappointed. Actually I started this one after I completed the famous "The Devil Wears Prada", which I felt was very slow and boring. I think that is because I had seen the movie before and reading the book didn't piqued me that much after that. So Private was kind-of a fast read.
Jack Morgan is the main character. He worked in military, serviced in Iraq, had a came-back-from-death incident, returns to his normal life and takes over the private investigation company of his father, eventually finds huge success out of it. Then on, the story revolves entirely around the investigation company, with his colleagues, his relationships, his success, his fears, so on and so forth. He gets many private investigation requests from top shots. "Private" picks some of it and drops some of it. Most part of the book dealt with the serial killer investigation, which was the most interesting one of course. The online gaming stuff felt real, eventhough I am not even sure if such thing really exists. The most boring case, if I had to pick one, would be the NBA game case.
PRIVATE has some amazing set of investigators on its sleeves. My most favourite pick is Sci, ofcourse for being the computer geek.. yay.. and some of the other characters reminded me of the so many investigation serials that comes on tv forever. Coming to his relationship part, basically Jack just sucks. He doesn't know how to be in a relationship, or may be, like he says in the book, he is scared of any relationships after seeing a bad one between his mother and father. Anyways, I find it to be new, since most of the films and books tend to go on a path of, a successful guy gets the most beautiful woman ever attitude. But this one didn't. The way he mourns about his failed relationships, his fears by keeping it to himself and when he wanted to open to a trusted person, they just screw up on him. Those scenes were kind-of interesting and gave back the same I-don't-care attitute on the protagonist. I found it to be very practical.
The dreams that he gets, anonymous calls that he gets never felt like that was needed at any point. I thought those scripts were added just to make his character look like a complex one. His inner thoughts on how he left a person who can be saved from a burning helicopter, but instead took his nearly deceased friend out of it was reasonable. Atleast, I felt so when I read the book. The way Jack's inner thoughts were written was commendable. Overall I liked how his character has been developed in the book. Really nice writing. Unlike any other investigation thriller books I've read, this one dealt with more than two or three cases which I felt was a nice approach to deviate the reader's mind from guessing the main stream investigation plot in the book.
The writing was so good that not at any point it felt like for-the-sake-of-writing. One of the most gripping ones was when Jack found about his present GF's suicide attempt, he meets her at the hospital. And the way the lady lets him walk over her was very nicely written. It was not at all sentimental. After watching so many happily-ever-after movies, this one felt so real. Finally, I will definitely read the other books of James Patterson. As far this book is concerned, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not even once I felt like its going slow. I will definitely recommend this book if anyone is interested in reading a investigation thriller.
