Review: NYPD Red by James Patterson (4/5)

When looking for a crime fiction book you can a) read in a few hours and b) not have to think too hard about, you can't really go wrong with a James Patterson book. Well, you can if you pick up one of the duds but when you have written (or put your name to) as many books as he has it does become a case of picking out the good from the bad.

I liked the premise of NYPD Red and of course with Patterson after just a few chapters I was hooked. One thing I love about his books is the storylines, at the same time as being completely over the top they are also believable. And so when Hollywood comes to New York and people from the film world are being killed across the city the book becomes like watching a film. 

As with most of his books we read from the point of view of the killer and the police hunting the killer. I did feel that the chapters from the killer's point of view were quite weak compared to other Patterson books, the killer just didn't have the originality or the evilness of some of Patterson's previous characters. I did however enjoy the chapters following the main characters Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald. I had Flack from CSI: New York in my mind for Zach's character. Zach just happens to be in love with the married Kylie so there was a romantic element here of sorts but it isn't lovey dovey and doesn't ruin the story, in fact in certain parts it makes it better.

One thing with Patterson's books is there's usually a case of either a whole city being under threat or a high profile person being under threat and call me weird if you want but surely the reason we read books like this is for the excitement, and so I often find myself cheering on the killer and hoping they achieve what they set out to achieve. After all these are only fictional characters and it would be really boring if A tried to kill B but was stopped by C before he could do it. The more blood the better as far as I'm concerned.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable book to pass a few hours.