Tag: James Patterson

Book review: Liar Liar by James Patterson and Candice Fox

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Ok, so I may have had a little binge…Liar Liar by James Patterson and Candice Fox is book 3 in the Harriet Blue series.

Detective Harriet Blue is clear about two things. Regan Banks deserves to die. And she’ll be the one to pull the trigger.

In Liar Liar Harry is on a mission to hunt down serial killer Regan Banks who killed her brother. But she is not searching for him with procedural justice in mind. She’s gone rogue and wants to kill him. Because some people deserve to die. But it is not a one way chase because Regan is hunting Harry as well, and the police are looking for both of them. 

Police bungle Regan Banks arrest, deadly serial kiler still at large. Two found dead; scene suggests Regan Banks alive and well. Where is Harriet Blue? Speculation rife detective is in league with killer.

Regan knows a lot about Harry and the people she cares about, going all the way back to her childhood. He’s using what he knows without remorse to try and draw her to him.

The public had never liked Harry. Had never believed that a Sex Crimes detective didn’t know her brother was a serial killer. 

The authors take us deeper into Harry’s psyche as she walks on the wild side driven by grit, determination, loyalty, and a thirst for vengeance. It is hard not to like Harry, as crazy as she is.

I didn’t sleep much. But when I did, my mind turned in circles, repeating their names like a mantra, connecting them end to end. When I was really tired, my lips moved. I sometimes woke to the sound of my own whispering.

Liar Liar is all action, violence and plot twists. It’s dark and gritty and suspenseful.

Book review: Fifty Fifty by James Patterson and Candice Fox

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Fifty Fifty by James Patterson and Candice Fox is book two in the Harriet Blue series. I have not read book one, but it didn’t matter, so don’t let that issue put you off. I read the novel as I am a huge Candice Fox fan and her finger prints are all over this one.

I’d been talking about the ‘key’ to my brother’s case since his arrest. The thing that freed him. A piece of false testimony. A surprise witness. Something, anything. I’d been looking into Same’s case, and I hadn’t found the key that proved he wasn’t the killer. But I had high hopes.

Detective Harriet Blue has a short fuse and anger issues stemming from an upbringing in foster care. When her brother Sam is arrested and charged with being a serial killer, Harriet is the only person who believes he is innocent and she is determined to catch the real killer. 

The only sound was the dull thump of his body on the pavement, the whisper of his styling robes, a big bird bought down out of the sky by a rifle blast.

There is one person who holds the key to Sam’s innocence, but she is locked up in a cellar being starved by the real serial killer.

You’re a hothead. And I love that about you. It’s half of what makes you a good cop. Your fearlessness. Your fire. But you need to get away from here before you do some real damage.

After losing her cool on the steps of the courthouse and assaulting a prosecution lawyer, Harriet is sent to Last Chance Valley in the outback where a diary has been found by the roadside containing plans of a massacre in the town of 75 people. It becomes apparent the plot may be legitimate when the former Chief of Police is blown up out in the scrublands. Harry has the local (not very experienced) cop to work with along with Elliot, an over enthusiastic counter-terrorism task force member who thinks he should be in charge.

I flipped through the diary. The only thing I could think that united the spree killers in the diary was their rage. Their desire to be punishers.

Back in Sydney, Harry’s partner Detective Edwards Wittacker is keeping an eye on her brother’s trial and notices some of the evidence doesn’t make sense.

Most of my life I’d wavered over a very thin line between light and dark shades of my being. There were things in me that were frightening. How quick I was to anger. How much I liked hurting people sometimes…Most of the time, my light half won out, and the shadows and smoke were sent recoiling to where they belonged, not completely driven out, but controlled…But sometimes the halves collided. 

Fifty Fifty has two plots for the price of one. While at times a bit overly dramatic, it’s a pacey novel that keeps the reader hooked. Harry’s wild antics steal the show. She’s ferocious, smart, quick to fight, has nerves of steel and a heart of gold. If you like a quick, gritty bold crime read, Fifty Fifty could be for you.

Book review: The Murder Inn by James Patterson and Candice Fox

On By rlsmithwritingIn Reviews, Writing LifeLeave a comment

I really like the idea of collaborative writing – that is where two or more authors work together to produce a creative work. I have dabbled in collaboration with poetry, but find the idea of collaborating on long form fiction enticing. I imagine it could be very motivating and playful, as well as a challenging learning experience.

One of my favourite crime authors, Candice Fox, began collaborating with American author James Patterson in 2015 and the two have written seven novels together, all of which have been New York Times best sellers.

The Murder Inn is one of Fox and Pattersons collaborations. The Murder Inn, published in 2024, is a sequel to the 2019 collaboration, The Inn, featuring ex cop Bill Robinson. The story also reads as a stand alone. 

Ex cop Bill Robinson runs an Inn with his partner Susan (ex FBI) in Massachusetts. The Inn houses a ragtag collection of tenants. Bill is trying to help Nick, a veteran and guest at the Inn who suffers from PTSD episodes believing someone is trying to kill him.  

The Inn by the Sea was a simple construction: its weather-board exterior, recently painted sunflower-yellow, did little to shut out the freezing Gloucester winters, and its mismatched steel and wood bones rambling with poorly thought-out extensions and adjustments, creaked as the people inside it moved. But it was those people and their stories that give the house its heartbeat.

When Shauna, the widow of Bill’s former colleague (a crooked cop) is assaulted by some thugs who work for a notorious drug lord called Norman Driver who has moved into town, she fights back. The incident uncovers some of her husbands deeply buried secrets. Bill also tries to help Shauna and finds himself in the firing line as well.

Driver had spent most of his twenties feeling the cold hand of Lady Disaster on his shoulder whenever an officer stepped into a diner he was sitting in, or when a police squad car stopped beside him at a traffic light. Pushing sixty now, he simply smiled and nodded.

The personal dramas, dark secrets, betrayals, murders, and violence seeping out of The Murder Inn set a cracking pace and the multiple points of view and plot lines converge to tell a compelling story for thriller lovers.

Book review: 2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson, Candice Fox

On By rlsmithwritingIn Reviews2 Comments

Candice Fox partnered with James Patterson to write this cracker of a crime novel. The two met at a cocktail party and have worked on a few books together, most notably the Harriet Blue series. 2 Sisters Detective Agency is their latest offering, a stand alone detective thriller.

Rhonda Bird is a fabulous character. A fat, pink haired attorney who wears rock band t-shirts and spends her time helping young people on the wrong side of the law. When she gets a call advising that her estranged father, Earl, is dead and she needs to return to LA to sort out his affairs, she does so reluctantly, anticipating being landed with all his debts. What she finds are two unexpected surprises.

As big as I am – 260 pounds, some of it well-earned muscle and some of it long-maintained fat – there’s no point trying to fit in with the crowd. The pink hair was just the latest shade in a rotating kaleidoscope of colors I applied to my half shaved, wavy quiff, and I always wore rock bank shirts in the courtroom under my blazer.

Earl bequeathed Rhonda his dodgy private detective agency and his fifteen year old obnoxious, black, leggy, Instagram influencer daughter, Baby, whose existence Rhonda was unaware of. Whilst Rhonda grapples with who her father was and what to do about the brat half-sister she’s been gifted, the two women find themselves in the firing line of an angry Russian criminal cartel and an awakened ex-assassin with a lust for revenge, thanks to Earl’s dodgy operations.

As you’d expect from Candice Fox, 2 Sisters Detective Agency is jam packed with bigger than life bold characters, plenty of action and laugh out loud humour.

I’m a huge Candice fan (previous reviews here, here, here, and here), and could see her fingerprints all over this story, but she doesn’t get all the accolades as the work was a collaboration. I’ve never read James Patterson before, but will do so now as I found myself pondering whilst I read the book how they worked together. Did they write alternate chapters? Did they choose characters and write one each? Did they edit each other’s work? I imagine collaborative writing adds an interesting zing to the usually solitary process. Perhaps reading some of Patterson’s work will reveal his style and enable me to tell more easily which voice is him and which is Candice.

I started reading 2 Sisters Detective Agency the day after Melbourne’s long lockdown ended and was so captured I had to drag myself away from the story to attend to the social catch ups I’d prearranged. I almost wished lockdown had been extended for a day or so to give me the excuse to just lie on the sofa and get lost in the adventure. Highly recommended.