This is a review of Worst Case, by James Patterson. Copyright © 2010; fiction. List price: $27.99. ISBN 978-0-31-603622-1.
Michael Bennett, a detective with the NYPD, has a problem: children of New York’s wealthiest and most influential people are being kidnapped, but the kidnapper isn’t demanding a ransom in exchange for their safe return. Instead, the kidnapper has created his own version of “20 Questions,” and the penalty for wrong answers is death. One of the FBI’s top Abduction Specialists, Emily Parker, joins Bennett’s team, and together, they race against the clock, trying to find the victims before the kidnapper delivers the final grade. But kidnapping and murdering children isn’t all this criminal has planned; before Bennett and Parker can take him down, they will have to stop him from carrying out the final phase in his plan: bringing devastation and chaos to the entire city of New York.
Analysis:
I think most readers of suspense fiction acknowledge James Patterson as one of the best in the business. His novels are some of the best page-turners on the bookshelf; just when you’ve convinced yourself that you’ve reached a stopping point, and to finally put the book down, something happens in the book that keeps your attention. Before you know it, you’ve read three-quarters of the book, and haven’t gotten anything else in your life done for hours. The intentionally short chapters, the action, the tantalizing suspense, and the characters all seem designed to keep the reader hooked and involved in the story. How many times have you said, “Just one more chapter, and I’ll put it down,” only to find yourself unable to do so…three chapters later? This alone makes Patterson at the top of the suspense fiction game.
I didn’t realize this book was one in a series about Detective Michael Bennett when I started reading it, but I didn’t feel too left out of the character’s life. Patterson does a great job of catching the reader up throughout the story, providing just enough information about Bennett’s personal and professional life to keep the reader engaged. By the end, I had resolved to read the first two books in the Bennett series, not necessarily to catch up on the details of his life, but because the character is so endearing. The only confusing part about Bennett’s life was near the end of the book – I had assumed that his nanny, Mary Catherine, was a matronly, older woman, but learned she wasn’t. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but in this case, it made some events and interactions seem a little strange until I figured it out.
I have a problem with male main characters in books – when they’re developed well and really well-written to the point where they seem like real people to me, I tend to develop crushes on them. I know; it’s weird. I have “book crushes” on several main characters across the spectrum; after reading Worst Case, I’m afraid I may have to add Michael Bennett to my “crush” list. But my infatuations with pretend people is a subject for my shrink to tackle; more importantly, it demonstrates that Patterson’s ability to create a character that is believable and real to the reader means that the reader becomes invested in the story. We want Bennett to win, both personally and professionally, and we want him to be a hero. We wish we could use our knowledge of the bad guy’s thoughts and activities to help Bennett – if only there was a way to get that information to him before the bad guy strikes again! We agonize over Bennett’s nearsightedness when it comes to the women in his life, and hope that he gets his love life right. We simultaneously cringe at the chaos that ensues in a house with ten children, and admire Bennett’s management of that chaos.
Our feelings about the villain in this story is, of course, based on anger and outrage, but is also tinged by both pity and a sense of our own helplessness. While we wouldn’t go to the same extremes, we can understand the kidnapper’s desire to improve the world around him. We ourselves have read the statistics about poverty, third-world conditions, the environment, and the excesses of the wealthy, and have felt a furious desire to change things. While it doesn’t excuse or forgive the actions of the kidnapper, it does make us wonder: what would we do if we had nothing to lose? Somehow, Patterson manages to bring a sort of humanity to even the villain in his story.
Overall, this book was a great read, quick and wrought with tension, with a satisfying ending and anticipation for the next in the series. Add it to your beach or poolside reading list.
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