Private: #1 Suspect

My First James Patterson. I’ve had my favorite writers and they have filled all my reading hours for years, but many people told me the read James Patterson because his style is just what I like… They were correct. Now I will fill my down time with his many other offerings.
Private is filled with excitement and page turner events right from the very beginning, but it also has lots of characters that send the plot in many directions. All the characters are well developed with their own reason to turn to the next page. The plot is well organized to capture without givng anything away as to the outcome. Good first read.

In all honesty, I have yet to read this book! But when I saw that Maxine Paetro was a coauthor I didn’t even hesitate to buy it! She is the woman who wrote, or helped to write, the WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB novels! And I have thoroughly enjoyed each & every one of those books! To me, that makes Ms Paetro a bankable author! I am looking forward to spending a few days with this novel, as I am sure that it will be just as good as her other work!

Heading: The shooting of a young lady opens the story for us. It is soon revealed that she is Colleen Molloy, recent girlfriend and personal assistant to the owner of PRIVATE, Jack Morgan.

Rating:

I rated this book a five for the intricacy of plot which manages to keep the main perpetrator from you until near the end and entertains you with a smooth yet complex subset of plots, all interconnected though disparate in their design and direction. Jack Morgan is once more the master operator and ladies man. You really must read it! (Rod Eamens).

Jacks Los Angeles staff is summoned to his house at night to commence crime scene investigation into Colleens death. Someone dumped the drugged Colleen on Jacks bed then shot her three times with Jacks gun.

Dr. Justine Smith, Jacks confidant and number two at PRIVATE, also a previous live-in lover, was first to arrive as her habit is to gain a feel for a crime scene through her highly developed senses as a psychologist and profiler with a brilliant mind and great tenacity to stay with a problem.

Soon after Dr. Sci and Mo-bot arrived with their modern technology to undertake a quick but thorough analysis as interference in any way with a crime scene is illegal. To the Police, Jack seemed to be suspect number one, an open-and-shut case.

A fifth-time serial murder by garroting occurred for the third time in one of the hotels owned by another client, Amelia Poole (called Jinx). Then, Carmine, scion of the Noccia family visited Jack to call in his marker from a favour carried out some months ago, in respect to Jacks identical twin brother, Tommy Morgan Jr. A young movie star, Danny Whitman, with a criminal zipper problem (under-age girls) requires full-time minders when filming his latest potential blockbuster.

Jacks suspicion for Colleens murder falls on Tommy, who hates Jack because of his success. Jack bailed him out on a few occasions, the last time for $600,000, and his life, to Carmine Noccia. Tommy Morgan Snr., previously owned PRIVATE, which he ran a little south of the law. He became rich, was jailed and shived there two weeks after Jack visited him, at which time he handed the business over to Jack with $15 million in off-shore funds.

In town on business, Maurice Bingham called a high-class escort agency to provide a girl to him at the Beverly Hills Sun, one of Jinxs hotels. The girl attending (Jillian Delaney) was a petite, moonlighting college student putting herself through medicine. Cruz and Del Rio met her at the college campus next afternoon when she was horrified to hear of Maurices murder by garrote. They believed she had no part in it.

Later, Jack was entertaining Jinx at his home when a phone call from her hotel brought the news of another murder by garrote. PRIVATE investigators learned it was the doorkeeper at the Havana Club, Carmelita Gomez. They went to her place immediately, knocked on the door and called out to her. They had no response but heard a car start up out back and head at high speed to the front and escape. With several police cruisers and two PRIVATE vehicles chasing her, she went faster. Finally she headed into a cul-de-sac at high speed and purposefully crashed into the barrier wall at its end, killing her after she admitted to the murders to Jack and Del Rio; she hated men.

Del Rio and Cruz also took over the drug heist case with new employee, Christian Scott (Scotty). Their informers gave details of where the van was secreted and they staked out the site. Scotty joined them there and conducted an internal survey of the premises acting the role of an applicant for work. He was given a tour of the warehouse and had observed the van together with the security system, highly impressing the other two.

A few nights later they are back to break into the warehouse and not cause them to be trapped by police or the other gang. They soon find the van secreted behind shelves of pots and other material. The boys rang Jack to tell him they were mobile, well away from the warehouse, on the way to their meeting place predetermined with Carmine Noccia. Jack contacted Chief Mickey Fescoe and gave him details of the job and whereabouts of the van. The Chief was delighted.

Mike Donahues tavern was an Irish pub with a restaurant that could have been transported from Galway or Cork and simply planted in Los Angeles. When Jack entered the pub, Mike looked up through the crowd to see him, then his face showed great emotion. He struggled through the crowd from the bar to Jack, who never saw the punch coming. When he came to, he was looking up at a circle of Colleens friends and a distraught Mike, who had it all wrong.

Danny Whitman was making his next blockbuster as Justine and Scotty met with all the entourage and hangers-on. Danny had been charged with statutory rape of a 14-year old starlet, Katie Blackwell. Danny claims he had never met the girl personally, could not have had sex in his small, sporty car and was being framed after being drugged.

Scotty and Del Rio were later on site as minders when Danny was about to do the next scene with 16-year old starlet, Piper Winnick. She was overwhelmed by being in a film with him, guaranteed to promote any young actor to stardom, and was joking around with him getting into the personalities of their roles of two young spies. They were to appear from the house, go to a luxury sports car whilst talking and drive away. Danny gunned the engine, Piper screamed and the car shot forward to the road and was quickly out of sight. PRIVATE had lost its client. The Police called it a kidnapping.

Del Rio met Justine searching the trail outdoors of the luxury cabin Danny had bought as a bolt-hole. They called out for Danny and could faintly hear his response. He was found in his boxers only, stank of alcohol, was almost hysterical. Del Rio used a little rough handling to get Danny to tell him where Piper was. He pointed to the cliff nearby and cried that he could not lift her. Del Rio walked to the edge and could see her broken body 100 yards down the canyon. He had to go down to check her state though he was sure Piper was dead.

Danny was arrested for Pipers Murder. In the hospital ward from self-inflicted injury, he is handcuffed to the bed and claims innocence, someone else who had been at the cabin had harmed Piper. Both Jack and Justine agreed with this thought.

Justine looked through her peep-hole to see Larry Schuster, Dannys manager. He had been wrestling all night with the problem of confiding in Justine about Dannys additional misdemeanors of other girls wanting to sue him for unwanted sexual contact. Danny claimed it wasnt him, nor did he kill Piper, so who was it? Larry eventually named Alan Barstow, Dannys agent. Piper was trying to get Danny away from Alans control. Justine visited Alan at his workplace opulence reigned and she had him arrested. He pleaded to give up the real murderer. At Pipers memorial service, Justine moved in on Merv Koulos, producer of the current film who knew it would tank due to Dannys lack of support by filmgoers through his crazy life; he was too used. Koulos would lose millions and was over extended by his expenditure on lifestyle and general waste. He had excessive insurance to cover all his problems if Danny was convicted.

Jack was going through the material he had accumulated on Colleen to prepare his defense of the murder charge. Mo-bot had videoed Jacks arrest at PRIVATE headquarters. He was viewing this when he spotted a face in the media surge. It was a Morgan family hand-me-down, not exactly harmless, almost a Morgan Family curse. Jack inherited him along with PRIVATE as he was an excellent investigator, but slimy. Soon it was revealed he had helped in the murder, though who did he assist?

I trust I have whetted your interest and not spoiled the story for you. Please read the book, it is worth your effort.

Rod Eamens.

Private #1 Suspect is a good book just like the first Private novel of the series but I took one star off because it had 4 story lines within the book the main one did Jack Morgan murder someone? Then you have the other three minor ones Hotel room killings of business men and an actor with a wild streek and a crime family intrested in illegal drugs. I start with the major story line Jack is accused of murder his Girlfriend Colleen, but Jack has to proof he didn’t kill her with the help of his friends and his company. Over time they find leads and Jack feels it in his bones that his twin brother has something to do with it. Then as the book gets closer to the end Jack figures it out who the real killer is and wants to go talk to him to proof his innocence. Two main California cops think Jack really killed this girl and beat him up while interviewing him. Jack tries to have an office romance with Jinx (spoiler). But I won’t say how the book ending was you have buy it to find out for yourself. As for the other story lines I only cared about two out of the three and that was the Hotel murders of the business men which Private was able to help figure out because of a certain woman with a hate for all men. Then last Jack tried to help the crime family get their drugs but then the cops bust the crime family with the drugs (spoiler). Because of this case behind Jack he suffers loses of people, cilents, and money. This is still a great read, read it in 4 days time, you just have to like his new style of writing his suspense trillers because of the Ghost writers and so many story lines major then minor ones.

Another wonderful book by James Patterson. Jack Morgan the owner of Private comes home to find a former girlfriend dead in his bed. He is arrested for the murder. This the surveillance of a large amount of illegal street drugs, the death of a young starlet ,and the deaths of several businessmen keep Jack and Private very busy. The book flows easy between Cass and was a great read.

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