Private London (Other Private Offices)

Private London (Other Private Offices)

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3.63 of 5 stars 3.63  ·  rating details  ·  3,146 ratings  ·  361 reviews
SOMETIMES WHEN THE NIGHTMARE ENDS - THE TERROR IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING

For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private - the world's most exclusive detective agency - saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has foll...more
Paperback, 357 pages
Published 2011 by Century
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Mark
At the end of Chapter 108, (this man writes in incredibly short breathy chapters and there are tons of them), Patterson has his hero saying, on being asked if he is ready for a fight, 'I resisted the temptation to say that I was born ready '. Throughout this novel I think it is probably the only hard man/tough guy cliche he does resist. Every cocky, cool, hip or wanky (choose your term) phrase that has ever passed the lips of a cocky, cool, hip, wanky bloke passes this wanker's lips (oops sorry...more
Matt
I listened to the audiobook and was not all that impressed with the book at all. Perhaps it is just me, or Patterson's co-author in this series is just not grabbing me. I said it after book 1, but really, this series should stop sooner than later... as it just does not have the grip that his others do.



It could be the reader, I suppose, but I am not feeling the plot as much as I do with the other series, particularly WMC and AC.



Poor storyline and character development, as well as presentation......more
Sandie
We live in an age where exclusivity is the order of the day and usually separates the haves from the have nots. Those with a lot of disposable cash will pay whatever it takes to procure the best available in any category. When it comes to detective agencies, the best that money can buy is PRIVATE, a PI agency with offices on both sides of the pond each possessing an almost unbelievable technical capability. Just ask authors James Patterson and Mark Pearson, the two men who create just the right...more
Terri Lynn
This was such a smooth read, I couldn't stop. I barreled through the 364 pages like a maniac reader on a rampage. Former Royal Military Police officer Dan Carter, now working for the worldwide powerhouse private detective firm of Private is given charge of college student Hannah Shapiro. He is to take her to London from the USA so she can go to college. His college grad god-daughter Chloe is to enroll in classes and pretend to be a student when she is really helping watch Hannah.

Years earlier at...more
Paula  Phillips
Did you enjoy James Patterson's first novel in the Private series featuring Jack Morgan - an ex-military turned Private Investigator . Since the first book, where Jack decided to go into the Private Eye business , we have read in Private London that his business has boomed and there are now offices all around the world. The second book in the series "Private London" takes us to his London office where Jack has employed another ex-military cop called Dan Carter , as a New Zealander this made me c...more
Aaron
The Private series by James Patterson is really turning out to be multiple series that are all tied to Private International, a private investigative firm with office in major cities all across the globe. This is the second novel in the series that focuses on the London branch, which is managed by Iraq War veteran Dan Carter. The previous volume had him and his team working to save the London Olympics from terrorists.

In this volume, Dan is dealing with a kidnapping of a college-aged girl named H...more
Teresa
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Marianne
Private London, the first of the Private International series by James Patterson, is set in London and co-written with Mark Pearson. The head of Private’s London branch, Dan Carter, is charged by Jack Morgan with keeping Hannah Shapiro, a young American woman with a wealthy and influential father, safe while she undertakes studies at the prestigious Chancellors University. When Hannah is abducted off the street, Dan’s ex-wife, DI Kirsty Webb, as part of the investigating team, suspects it may be...more
Lisa
just a quick note to express happiness with a "Private" series novel AT LAST!

really enjoyed it overall & am guessing it helps that i also enjoy nivels written by &/or set in london/britain, etc. i am constantly amused by the british vernacular & enjoy the observations of american folks from that point of view.

i almost let this series go as i was actually finding it to be rather dull and boring thus far; i am glad i did not! not a 5-star read, IMO, but i do feel the tricky storylineS...more
Mark
This book was alot better than the first book in this series, which to be honest isn't really saying much as I thought the first book in the Private series was one of the worst books that James Patterson has ever penned. The only reason I gave this book a go was because it was a James Patterson and I read as much of his work as possible, so if it wasn't for that fact I wouldn't have given this a chance after reading the first Private novel. Despite not being as bad as it's predocessor this book...more
Kari Ramirez
This whole thing was very confusing. Warning!!! This review will contain spoilers for Private Games!!!

This is #4 in the Private series. It comes after Private Games and that's what makes it confusing. I made sure numerous times that I was reading the books in the right order. When I was reading Private Games it is mentioned that a plane carrying most of Private London's head staff had crashed, killing everyone on board sometime before the book begins. Later on, Jack Morgan tells Peter Knight tha...more
Jodi
This book was not at all like the normal James Patterson books. I normally can start and finish a book in one sitting. This one took three days and seemed to go forever. It was set in London and had alot of english sayings that I frankly had no clue what they were. There was two stories going which is typical James Patterson. It was chaotic and very hard to follow. One girl was sent to London for college and sort of as a witness protection program. She was kidnapped along with a roommate and the...more
Lynn
I'm still not sure about this whole venture of James Patterson's of using different foreign authors for each book in the Private series. It's hard for me to put this into words, but the feel of the repeat characters seems to change from book to book, and of course, the whole tone and writing style of the book, depending on who wrote it. This doesn't work well in a series. Again, in Private London, it's as if Patterson lent his name only to the book, and it was completely written by Mark Pearson....more
Kat Lebo
Feb 13, 2013 Kat Lebo rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No one
Private London Review

I’m not through with this book yet, but felt compelled to review it anyway. And I’m sorry, but this will not be a favorable review. If you’re a fan of the Private series – stop reading now.

Although I am not an avid reader of James Patterson novels, I do like his novels, particularly the Alex Cross series and the Women’s Murder Club. So, I feel I’m acquainted with his style. That said, I think the only thing about this particular book that reeks of James Patterson is his name...more
Charity Kountz
I like the other Private books, however this book was not at all the same quality or style of writing. A lot of UK terms, phrases and spellings made the book very difficult to follow for this US based reader. I spent quite a bit of time looking up definitions for unfamiliar words (like nick which refers to a jail). In addition the story continued well past the point when I expected it to end. All in all, definitely not a favorite of the Patterson books. Readers who are internationally based or w...more
ConvincoDude
This book didn't get released in America until late last year, almost a full year after its initial UK release. I kinda had to wonder why it wasn't getting around to Patterson's native land first. Was it too good, or just not good enough?

The answer, sadly, was the latter.

The real problem was that the story just wasn't as interesting as the other three Private books Patterson has put out to date. We don't get introduced to Private here, we don't get to see Jack Morgan try to prove his innocence,...more
Linda Rawlins
Private London is another book in a successful series for James Patterson. His co-author is Mark Pearson, author of Britain's bestselling Jack Delaney crime series. It is the tale of Hannah Shapiro, a young American woman who attends school in London. Dan Carter, head of Private London and former Royal Military Police Sergeant is charged with looking after her. Dan Carter's ex-wife, DI Kirsty Webb is leading an investigation into young women who were abducted and murdered in "grotesque mysteriou...more
Tom Tischler
Dan Carter is the head of the London office of Private. It
is one of the world's largest investigation agencys. Jack
Morgan the owner of Private has put him in charge of watching
Hannah Shapiro the daughter of one of Privates wealthiest
clients. Hannah and her mother were kidnapped when she was 13.
Her mother was raped and killed. Now Hannah is going to school
in London and its Carters job to protect her. As fate
would have it Hannah is once again kidnapped and Carter must
use all of Privates global r...more
Trish Elizabeth
Loved this book, excellent contrast to previous reads of this year, quick, sharp and a constant page turner.

Chapters were short, and regular intrigue presented, you have to read it.

James Patterson is passionate about getting kids to read, his own son was what he calls a reluctant reader.

James has written for young readers who naturally need to have their attention kept at all times, this style of writing comes across strongly in this book. Regular new direction and interesting characters.

I foun...more
Rebecca
There's a lot of characters in this book, there's also two mysteries that need to be solved. The main one is a college student who gets kidnapped, and the secondary one is bodies that keep turning up with fingers cut off. The kidnapping gets resolved, and it makes sense in the farfetched, exciting world of James Patterson, the murders are also resolved, but it makes less sense, and I didn't want to reread chapters to see what I'd missed. I wasn't the only person with that complaint, so I'll chal...more
Nancy
Aug 20, 2012 Nancy added it
Private London is an upscale PI firm located in London. Dan Carter has been charged to protect Hannah Shapiro, a young American girl going to school in London, who witnessed her mother's murder years earlier. She is abducted and Carter's god child, Chloe, who tried to protect her is injured. Carter discovers it was a prank. Hannah has been brainwashed by her tutor to think that her father abused her. Father comes to London and is kidnapped. Father is billionaire inventor. Tutor and Arab friends...more
Heather Truckenmiller
How disappointing. I loved Private, the first book in this series. By the first paragraph of this book, I should have known I wouldn't like this one, but I loved the first one so much, I wanted to love this one too.

Rape, false memory syndrome, pedophiles, bisexual, gay, and just straight sex.. this book was so full of sex, and violence, it ruined the story line.

To make matters worse, you'd have to be pretty dense to not know "who dunnit" less than half way into the book.

I know a lot of Patters...more
Lou
This book was quite a bit different than most other Patterson novels I have read. I assume it is because of the setting. With the help of his co-author, he weaves a tight story of intrigue centering around a case that has haunted the main character for many years. But it turns out there is much more to it than is on the surface.
There was a tip of the hand as to whom the actual villain was, but it really was not evident early on.
While it was a tight, fast moving-story, some of the British referen...more
Marcia
I have enjoyed the other "Private" books, but this is an exception. Basically, it had TOO MUCH! Within one novel of less than 400 pages, Pearson skims over kidnapping, murder, insane medical personnel, terrorism, and betrayal--TOO MUCH! One major plot is piled upon a previous one. Little is resolved except for a very brief summary at the end. I also object to Pearson's too casual grammar, which has many fragments and dangling modifiers that force the reader to re-read parts. The very short chapt...more
lucie parenkyuma
Jul 28, 2012 lucie parenkyuma rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: none of you
Disappointed. Not impressive enough. Confusing. Doesn't make an impact on a reader like me.

Above is the summary that I feel suited enough for Private London. To make it worse, those 116 chapters are short and there are actually two different cases in the book (I can’t understand how this is connected and is granted the permission to combine it together – ah, wait, I just don’t care anymore as I was too derange with the ‘scenes-gone-short’).

Worth mentioning, I don’t know who’s who; too many chara...more
KJ
James Patterson is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand he is involved in a campaign aimed at persuading children to read, which is entirely praiseworthy, yet on the other he has adopted a battery hen approach towards his adult fiction.

Private London is entirely dreadful, a piss poor thriller with two-dimensional characters, the type of book that fails to remain in the mind more than 30 seconds after the final chapter has been read.

James, old son, a bit of advice from a keen reader who these days...more
David
Does anyone else feel like James Patterson and his cohorts have become the Mills and Boon of the thriller genre? Churning out thinly researched books as fast as they can, with little regard for quality or consistency.

This particular novel is based around the flawed premise that a private firm would have the reach, resources and forensics capabilities above and beyond a government funded security organisation (MI5, CIA, FBI etc). The first book in the series was ok, this time I didn't buy it.

Ap...more
John
I'm still not sure about this whole idea of James Patterson's of using different foreign authors for each book in the Private series. In Private London, it's as if Patterson lent his name only to the book, and it was completely written by Mark Pearson. It doesn't read like a Patterson book; the only similarities are the subject matter and the short chapters.

I enjoyed the book, although I often got confused due to strange wording and the fact that there were two crimes occurring simultaneously t...more
Briana
I needed a break from some of the long books I was reading so I picked up this book as I'm a fan of James Patterson books. I know that he probably just has his name on the book and the second author actually wrote the book but I thought I would try it anyway. Like I said, I needed something easy to read after some of the books I've finished lately.

The book was a super quick read, which is what I needed. It was entertaining but it lacked character development and plot development. The twists and...more
Forgetfulone
This was a most confusing book. There was too much going on, and it didn't all connect. I think Patterson just needs to ditch his co-authors and if that means he can only write one or two a year, so be it. Guess it's all about money. Private London had one plot that reeled me in, but I never understood one of the other plots at all. Who did it, why, and how? Besides, there were too many efforts at trying to sound British and not quite making it, and way too many unnecessary sentence fragments, w...more
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What happened to... 3 43 Jan 22, 2013 02:41am  
Private London (Paperback)
Private London (Hardcover)
Private London (Paperback)
Private London (Paperback)
Private London (Jack Morgan, #2)

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The subject of a Time magazine feature called, "The Man Who Can't Miss," James Patterson is the bestselling author of the past year, bar none, with more than 16 million books sold in North America alone. In 2007, one of every fifteen hardcover fiction books sold was a Patterson title. In the past three years, James has sold more books than any other author (according...more
More about James Patterson...
Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross, #2) Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1) 1st to Die (Women's Murder Club, #1) The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, #1) Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

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