Customer Reviews

Private L.A.

What a total waste of time, money and paper. The book is two different, totally unrelated stories. I think Patterson wrote one of them and his co-author the other. Too many characters, too many plot lines, topped off with a quick, "let's get it over with" ending. James Patterson has been a favorite author for a long time but his Private series is a complete turn-off for me. I think he gets his jollies out of writing about kinky sex.

Private L.A. by James Patterson with Mark Sullivan is the seventh installment in the Private series but the third in the series featuring world-renowned private investigator Jack Morgan, head of Private Investigation. In this segment of the series, Jack Morgan is up against a mountain of problems when his twin brother, Tommy, is charged with murder.

Things are going from bad to worse in Los Angeles. Jack Morgan and his trusted team of investigators are called in when a group calling themselves 'No Prisoners' are holding the LA Authorities to ransom threatening to carry out massacres at random locations until their demands are met. And Jack has been asked to investigate the disappearance of the biggest superstar couple in Hollywood, Thom and Jennifer Harlow, along with their children, and prevent the news from leaking to the media.

It is a suspenseful story with a plot that moves at breakneck speed. It has all the trademarks of James Patterson's thrillers: absorbing, great characters, fast-paced, dramatic twists and turns and unbelievable storyline. Though the book coursed through three different plots, they are blended together only as Patterson can and wrapped up satisfactorily at the end. Private L.A. is much better than Private Berlin. It is an absolutely delightful perfect weekend getaway read.

I use to buy his books but now wait and get them through the library. Have been on the list for months....got the book....have TRIED to read it and it is horrible.....can't waste my time with this when there are so many other GREAT books out there to be read......May have to give up on Patterson.

Private is a Private Investigation Company run by Jack Morgan and a trusted band of colleagues who are willing to go where other agencies wont and as such are building a fast growing reputation.
In this, the 7th of the series, Private are called in when a group calling themselves 'No Prisoners' are holding the LA Authorities to ransom threatening to carry out massacres at random locations until their demands are met

At the same time World famous Hollywood couple Thom and Jennifer Harlow, recently returned from filming their latest blockbuster movie suddenly vanish without trace. Trying to keep the disappearance from the media Private are called in to investigate.

Plenty of action and the story moves at a good pace. Admittedly there were times where realism is stretched but it is fiction after all and that didn't really ruin my enjoyment. If you're after an easy read without too much depth then I'd certainly recommend this one.

It's been a long time since I've read anything by James Patterson (or the many authors he teams up with) and I haven't read any of the previous books in this series. To be fair I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and didn't feel at all disadvantaged with not having read the previous books. That said, I was intrigued by the relationship between Jack and his brother Tommy and there's obviously some pretty serious history there ...may well add them to my ever growing 'to read' list and find out the full story

This book was a bit unusual. There were two cases. The missing person case of Thom an Jennifer Harlow and finding a several killer. I actually though the two cases would link up, but they didn't. Usually I am eager to find out what happens in the end, but when I found out what happened I was thinking to myself, that was the big reveal? There didn't even seem to be a build up, I turned the page and I found out what happened to Thom and Jennifer. The ending to both cases was lack luster and mundane. No big plot twists here!

Really good story line, extremely enjoyable. Finished within a few days, could not put down. Well written easy enjoyable reading

For reasons unknown, this book was written with two plots that have no relationship to each other. Most plot turns were predictable; those that were not related to storylines I'd stopped caring about at all.

The writers may have visited Los Angeles a couple of times, but they know little about what it is like to live here. They drive all over the place but never get caught in any traffic (even at dusk on Halloween). They call Pacific Coast Highway "Highway 1," whereas most Angelenos don't use that term for that thoroughfare anywhere south of the split from the 101. The Huntington Beach Pier is moved to Los Angeles--not just the county, but the city, and into LAPD jurisdiction. That mistake could have been fixed easily, by transferring all that action to the Venice Pier, but the authors simply didn't care.

A woman has a fling and is seized by guilt when she finds out that her booty call is married and has two kids. Although supposedly a smart adult, she is unable to place responsibility on the guy--who wore no wedding ring and implied he was free. She has to have this pointed out to her by a therapist, even though she supposedly has an academic background and is a therapist herself. Naturally, she has multiple therapeutic specialities--working with children, helping PTSD patients--and has an "academic" background. She lives in a million dollar home (a detached single-family dwelling in Santa Monica), with no explanation given as to why she is that wealthy.

There are way too many names given, for stock characters who are about to be killed. The point of view changes radically, jarringly, even in the middle of action sequences. These types of problems made the book a lot of work to read. Not "thought-provoking" . . . work.

Characters do a lot of things for reasons that are hard to fathom at all . . . until one realizes that they are doing them because it is convenient for the writers.

Near the end, the main characters take enormous risks with their lives and futures by engaging in illegal and dangerous activities in Mexico, when it would have made more sense to walk away and let poetic justice take its course. They are thereby able to achieve a "storybook" ending (that is no more believable than the rest of the book), but their motives for the extreme recklessness are never explained.

This book was easy to put down, and I finished it out of a vague curiosity only, not because I truly cared what happened to the characters.

If this is representative of Patterson's actual work, I will be taken aback--given his popularity. I hope he's better than this, and that he and Sullivan simply phoned this book in.

Essentially, this was over 400 pages of broadcast television writing, rather than a satisfying crime book.

Forget the barely believable plot line(s) and the cardboard characters -- this book had James Patterson's name on it and I really, really wanted to like it. Despite my best efforts, I hated it. The author made absolutely no effort to research Southern California -- and LA is in the title! For the record, the Huntington Beach pier is within the city of Huntington Beach, in Orange County (so not under the jurisdiction of the LAPD, LA County Sheriff, nor LA County lifeguards); In-n-Out does not serve bacon cheeseburgers; and Disneyland is nowhere near Universal Studios. Those are just the errors that I can think of off of the top of my head. Lazy writing and lazy editing.

I read James Patterson, though I'm not sure why. I finished `Private LA' and in every sense of the word it is typical James Patterson. (I know he co-authored this with Mark Sullivan) but to me this was a typical Patterson book.

Positives: As with all of his work, the books are an easy read and very fast moving. I finished 425 in 3 sittings.

Typical: As with all Patterson novels, including the last few Alex Cross novels, his stories, as I said, are easy, quick-moving and pass the time. However, there is NO--and I mean NO--character development. None. You feel nothing for the good guys. The bad guys are typical Patterson--crazed but yet brilliant. Mad geniuses if you will. And really, why does the antagonist always have to have a scar of some sort?

One huge complaint I had about this book was the absolute overabundance of characters. It's bad enough he gives names to people unimportant (a waitress named Alice, the State Treasurer who appears in one scene, etc...) But it is name overkill in Private LA. Not only is it confusing to keep track of too many characters, but many parts include them in the same scene.

***Below is a list of characters---and all of them are introduced in just the first 45 pages. And believe me, it doesn't let up****

Example: Sandy, Wilson, Hunter (all unimportant), Jack Morgan, Guin Scott-Evans (Jack's lover), Sherman Wilkerson (minor), Elaine Wilkerson (Sherman's wife) , Carl Mentone aka `The Kid', Harry Thomas (unimportant), Mr. Cobb, Mr. Nickerson, Mr. Hernandez, Mr. Watson, Mr. Kelleher, Mr. Johnson (all important), Dave Sanders, Justine, Paul, Seymour Kloppenberg aka SCI, Maureen Roth AKA Mo-Bot, Rick Del Rio, Camilla Bronson, Terry Graves, Thom and Jennifer Harlow, Cynthia Maines, Anita, Miguel, Jin, Malia

***spoiler****

In addition to what I've mentioned, the dialogue is not believable. In one scene, on page 175, a reporter, Bobbie Newton (yes, another name) finds missing children. She happens on them accidentally, happens to have her cameraman in tow and says, `Three Two One' and goes live on the air. Impossible! But worse than that is the unbelievable dialogue. This is an excerpt from the book. Have you ever heard or can you imagine a reporter talking like this on live TV:
"This is Bobbie Newton, your best friend forever. I'm at the scene of a shocking shocking story that's about to rock Hollywood to its core. Jennifer and Thomas Harlow, the most powerful couple in all of film land, have been kidnapped. You heard it here first. And in a dramatic update, their children have only just been released, drugged out of their loving little minds. Look, just look at the poor darlings"
Are you kidding me???? How does this get into a book???

***end spoiler***

All in all, Private LA is typical Patterson. Fast-moving, easy read, no character development, no really big plot twists or surprises, stereotypical bad guys, unrealistic dialogue.

This was a typical Patterson book -- lots of action but very little character development. This one was a bit confusing as there were two main plots that were totally unconnected - and maybe three if you add in the issues with his brother. If you put all that aside and just read it as a pleasure book, its a real thriller with a lot of action.