NYPD cop Jacob Kanon has been chasing a pair of vicious killers across the capitals and holiday hotspots of Europe, killers who kick-started their murderous spree by butchering his daughter and her fiancée in Rome. Before each murder, a postcard is sent to the local newspaper, and when Stockholm-based crime reporter Dessie Larsson receives the latest missive, she and Kanon team up to try to stop the killers once and for all.

Unfortunately for readers hoping that the co-authoring of award-winning Swedish crime queen Liza Marklund will add some of the depth and substance apparent in many Swedish crime novels, Patterson’s by-now formulaic and breezily-plotted style filled with relatively thin characters clearly dominates the partnership here.

While you’ll want to know what happens, there is far too much telling rather than showing; everything is spelled out for the reader and there is little subtext, resulting in an insubstantial feeling. What passes for attempts at character development are generally clumsy or cliched, and the authors' hand is often obvious. The characters say things for the benefit of the reader, rather than them being organic from the story or character. There is no depth here.

While Patterson still has some talent for page-turning plots, there are many other thriller writers out there just as good (in fact, many better) at plot, while also providing much much more when it comes to character, setting, social issues, and dialogue etc.

Like fast food, the page-turning Postcard Killers may briefly satisfy, but soon afterwards you’ll be left feeling hungry again, unsatisfied and wanting something more. Something different, and better.