I haven’t read James Patterson for a while but I needed a thriller for a book group that I’m in. Suffice it to say this wasn’t the best book I could have chosen to return to the author.

This focuses on a police force that in theory is set up to solve high profile crimes. Turns out these crimes are crimes that happen to take place against rich and famous people. There are three main focuses of this book. The first is a serial bomber targeting the board of a high profile charity that is currently building housing for the cities homeless. The second is the murder of a famous movie director. The third is the robbery of a high stakes off of the books poker game.

First, the bombing case. I’m not sure how the author made a story about a serial bomber in New York boring but he managed it. I didn’t care about the bombs. I didn’t care about the targets. I just flat out didn’t care. The backstory of the actual bomber was the only interesting part of this. I liked him and I liked how his story played out. He’s the reason I’m not giving this book one star.

I guess the case with the murdered woman was vaguely interesting? I can’t say much about it without spoiling her entire story line but I’ve seen it on almost every cop show out there. Boring.

And the story line about the poker game was the worst, mainly for reasons I can’t say. It shouldn’t have been included in the book.

The author tries to drum up tension between the partners at various points in the book but once again, I didn’t scare. There was a whole lot of not caring in this.

And the basic premise of a police force dedicated to rich people is kind of gross. The author writes it himself, there are so many crimes that go unsolved in NYC every day. The rich people task force is offensive in its very nature.

Overall I don’t recommend this book. Patterson has written so many more better books. This one isn’t worth the time taken to read it.