This is my second James Patterson book; my first was Private which came out shortly before this book. It was also co-written with another author (as is this one). For some reason, the past couple of years (I believe) he has been using co-authors for a portion of his books.
I personally like his books, FallenVamp has told me she doesn't like him at all, but I like his books because they generally have a very intriguing murder storyline. Somehow he works in a love interest in there and it becomes a little lovey about 5% of the time (that may be the parts where his co-authors come in, just an assumption). His books are usually easy reads for some reason, and it could very well be because the chapters are only about two or three pages long; occasionally there will be the four to five page chapter. There's nothing wrong with that either, I think he utilizes short chapters in his books.
Here's a summary:
NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him--he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each cafe through the eyes of his daughter's killer.Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard to the local newspaper that precedes each new victim.
Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm--and they think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet.
Now, if you have read The Millennium Series (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc. by Stieg Larsson) you might think this story takes the popular location of that book and puts it in this one because the majority of the book takes place in Sweden and surrounding area. Also, notice the woman lead character's last name is Larsson. I don't think James Patterson stole these elements from the book, but I think that book writers in general have seen how successful The Millennium series has been so they're moving into that territory. That's just my take on it.
I'm not going to do a favorite quote like I did in the last drive-by review, because this isn't really a book that had a funny/important to humanity quote. It was a good book and I'm sure any James Patterson fan will pick it up (probably already have, it's been out for almost a year), and I definitely recommend it to any Patterson fan. If you're not one of his fans, you'll probably have to get used to his style and it might be an immediate turn-off for a lot of readers. In spite of how negative I'm sounding, it was very well written and the plot was original, engaging, and quite possibly plausible given the deranged person has the tendency to kill tourists.
I'll give it a 7 out of 10 and if you want to read it, my advice is to just borrow it from someone or get it from your public library. In my opinion, it was a short and easy read (but interesting!) so I wouldn't pay the Barnes & Noble price for it ($27.99). Then again, I buy a very little percentage of the books I read thanks to my public library. So support your public library and don't be ashamed to get books from a library: you're saving money and you're taking advantage of the government's tax dollars! (I think, does the government pay for public libraries or what? If you know, leave the answer in the comments because I would like to know.)
That's it for this drive-by, check back for more book-related posts and fun (and free!) giveaways, and be sure to become a follower (look to the left of this post).
