Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Postcard Killers by James Patterson & Liza Marklund


Jacob Kanon is in Paris, but not on vacation. He's looking for his daughter's killers...

Little, Brown and Company published this book in August and I read an ebook version from Net Galley for this review.

I've always admired James Patterson writing style. He writes short chapters (easy to pick up and put down), uses hard hitting words, and can imagine a man or woman so evil that you want to tell yourself there can't be people in the world like that, but you know better. As he grows older and has been working in conjunction with other authors, his style and tone gets merged into theirs here and there. That's not a bad thing, it's just something different. But this story just did not draw me in as well as previous books have.

Jacob is obsessed with finding who killed his daughter and her fiance in Rome. He's a NYPD officer, but he refuses to go home until he has avenged his daughter's death. The murderer's send postcards indicating where the murders have been committed. They seem to be targeting newly weds for the most part. And the murder scenes are providing no clues.

Jacob is stymied because he has no power "across the pond." Most of the local police want nothing to do with him - they have their own ways of investigating and don't need the help of an American police officer who can't speak their language.

Jacob asks the journalist who received the last postcard (the murders have not occurred yet) to work with him. She does hesitantly, wanting to help but not wanting to destroy her potential career.

The killers are devious and not everything is as it seems.

The premise is interesting and believable and the characters the authors created are human in all ways. Right or wrong, they keep trying to catch the killers who like to taunt the press and police. There are sexually graphic scenes in the book. The ending is exciting and could go either way.

This is a good read, but not quite the "full meal deal" you get from Patterson usually. It's well thought out and the story is fleshed out, but it didn't grab me. However, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it! I did enjoy reading it. I think the plot didn't appeal to me as much as some.

Why don't you read it and let me know what you think? Check with your local bookstore for a copy. Was it just my reading taste talking back?

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