Private is the first book of the Private series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, featuring detective Jack Morgan who runs a private investigation firm named "Private." Jack used to be in the military and is haunted by the time when there were numerous deaths on a helicopter he was piloting. Jack himself nearly died but was saved by his friend, Rick Del Rio, who later started working with him in the P. I. business. When Jack returned from Afghanistan, his father was in jail for extortion and murder, and he left Jack the P. I. business as well as some money.
Private begins a few years later when Jack's business is already established and he has a great team to help him solve the cases that come in. Dr. Seymour Kloppenberg aka Dr. Sci helps out with medical issues whereas Maureen Roth aka Mo-bot is the computer nerd handling all the technology-related aspects of the cases. Jack himself is the anchor of the book and the business, the one who takes all the different parts of the puzzle and puts them together.
In this first book, Jack has quite a few things on his plate. There are three cases he must solve, one involving the kidnapping and murder of twelve schoolgirls over the course of two years, another involving the beating and murder of one of his friends, Shelby, whom he dated a long time ago and a third involving sports-related gambling. With so many different things happening, Jack must stay on the alert so as not to miss anything.
This is a great quirky mystery with some action and interesting characters; there is also an office romance to spice things up a bit. Jack has to get into the mind of the killers so he can try and predict their next move.
James Patterson was born in 1947 in Newburgh, NY. He got a Bachelor's in English from Manhattan College and a Master's from Vanderbilt University. He worked in advertising at first, writing only sporadically, but, in 1996, he retired from advertising and started writing full time. At this point, Patterson is the highest-selling author in the US; he has outsold John Grisham, Stephen King and Dan Brown combined in the last few years. He also holds the record for the greatest number of hardcover books on the New York Times bestseller list—a whopping total of 76.
Maxine Paetro knew Patterson from his advertising years and started collaborating with him in writing books in 2005. She is also an author of her own fiction and non-fiction books and is well-known for her garden, Broccoli Hall, which has been featured in many home décor magazines.
"I don't remember anything about the first book but I really liked this one. There were a few cases going on at the same time, they were all intriguing. Most of the cases were very quickly solved and the book as a whole was a quick read. I can't wait for the next book in the series."
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Sonia (4 out of 5 stars)