Thriller

Reading this right after The Girl Who Played With Fire meant I was already queued for a suspense thriller involving cyber crime. It was a good beach read. ( )

Detective Michael Bennett is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is involved in a shooting of an armed robber holding a gun to his head. When a PR nightmare turns against him, he has to take time off, and the mayor asks him to look into the disappearance of his daughter, who has gotten mixed up with cybercriminals in Estonia. This was a fast-paced international police procedural with lots of POVs and not a lot of background on characters, but more a quick, action-based novella type telling. Some twists and turns when we get to Estonia, and of course lots of back and forth between the NYPD and the FBI and bad guy chases through the streets.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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Usually I enjoy the Michael Bennett series but this one felt kind of flat. The story line was interesting except it felt that dragged out sections to the point where I started loosing interest and just walked away for awhile. Normally, with a Jame Patterson book, the story is what holds everything together. In this instance it was marginal because of the dead spots.

Overall it was an interesting concept and pulled Michael Bennett into more of an international scene while he searched for the missing computer whiz daughter of the New York mayor. The journey to find her and her criminal computer genius boy friend is neither a simple journey or an obvious one. As always, Michael's family have a significant presence in the story and it underlies the urgency he feels in his search and journey to find the mayors daughter. One thing about the story there are some interesting characters that we meet on the journey that do help keep the story halfway interesting.

Overall, like all James Patterson's books, it is very acceptable mind candy for those of us addicted and in need to something light to read.

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After an attempted mugging ends with New York Police Department Detective Michael Bennett shooting the mugger, the detective finds himself with some free time . . . time Mayor Hanna wants him to use to find his missing daughter, Natalie. Just one father helping another father.

Following the murder of a college student and a coffee shop shooting that critically injures another college student, the trail takes Michael to Tallinn, Estonia where he hopes to find the missing young woman and bring her home again.

However, like the dead and injured students, Natalie is a computer wunderkind . . . and Endrick “Henry” Laar is hiring them as he wages war against corporations with his ransomware attacks. Can Michael find Natalie and return her to her family? And will the mayor’s promise of “father helping father” make any difference for Michael’s son, Brian?

In this, the twelfth outing for Michael Bennett, readers find the detective involved in something outside his normal New York Police Department milieu. As he waits for the shooting board decision, he heads off to Estonia in search of the mayor’s missing daughter. This effectively makes Michael a force of one in a foreign country with no jurisdiction, no authority, no badge, no backup, and no weapon. An interesting conundrum for an action-packed police series and one that the authors manage to pull off without turning the detective into a superhero-ish caricature.

Michael’s interactions with his children here strengthen the resolute father component of the strongly-nuanced character and give the story a powerful authenticity. A couple of unexpected plot twists keep the suspense in the telling of the tale and, despite some predictable elements, it’s an enjoyable adventure for fans of the series. Everyone, even those new to the series, will appreciate the immensely satisfying ending.

Highly recommended. ( )