Private Vegas by James PattersonMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: What happens in Vegas...stays Private.
Las Vegas is a city of contradictions: seedy and glamorous, secretive and wild, Vegas attracts people of all kinds--especially those with a secret to hide, or a life to leave behind. It's the perfect location for Lester Olsen's lucrative business. He gets to treat gorgeous, young women to five-star restaurants, splashy shows, and limo rides--and then he teaches them how to kill.
Private Jack Morgan spends most of his time in Los Angeles, where his top investigation firm has its headquarters. But a hunt for two criminals leads him to the city of sin--and to a murder ring that is more seductively threatening than anything he's witnessed before. Private Vegas brings James Patterson's Private series to a sensational new level.
Read as an audio book. My apologies if I've spelled names wrong.
To say this was set in Vegas would be a stretch at best. The reader is presented with four plots: the two ambassadors from Somlia, Arthur Hagg murdering his wife Toole, a series of car bombings - one of which took out Jack's Lamborghini, and the Delrio murder trial. The Toole murder is the only link to Vegas, and that didn't come until nearly 2/3 of the way through the book. Everything else is in LA.
In previous editions, Justine is portrayed as a woman who can hold her own, kick some butt, and solve mysteries. Now we're back to a woman who is jealous and peeved when Jack is called in to a crime scene (despite the fact that his JOB), comes across as a damsel in distress when Jack's car is blown up, behaves more like a sex kitten than a kick-ass private detective/psychologist, and has double standards when it comes to her being able to date but god forbid Jack has any relationship with another woman. Talk about a character giving people whiplash...
I also found it interesting that of the four plots, the least interesting and most easy to solve mystery was given to...Justine. It was like the authors felt a need to have her character in the book to justify her so-called romance with Jack, so give the woman the easy one.
What is *with* the women preening naked in front of mirrors in these books? Seriously?
If the astute reader can't see where the whole Delrio court trial is going (and who set it up), you should not be allowed to read anymore mysteries. That setup was so blatantly obvious I skipped any chapter with the trial.
The two plot that barely held my interest was the Somalian diplomats and the weak Vegas "Marry a Millionaire" scheme. IF the authors had been smart - they would have put those two plots completely in Vegas, dropped the rest for another time and then they would have had something.
I did have some issues with the Somlian's assaulting "chubby" blond women - a bit insulting to our curvy sisters in the world, especially since every other woman in the Private Series is tall, leggy, curvaceous, with flat tummys and tight butts. We know this because they preen in front of the mirrors and tell us so.
Ah well. Brain fodder for some long icy/snowy commutes. Can't recommend this one.
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