Reviw - The Games: A Private Novel

Little Brown & Co.; 395 pages; $28.99; Amazon

It's only less than a month away from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, Little Brown & Company has already released a book set around the Summer Olympics, titled The Games: A Private Novel, written by bestselling authors James Patterson & Mark Sullivan.

The "Private" series centers on Jack Morgan, the owner of a worldwide security/investigation business. "The Games" marks the 11th entry in the series with Jack Morgan once again being part of the action.

The novel begins in 2014 in in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil around the time of the World Cup Games. While everyone is celebrating the game, Dr. Castro, is fighting to stop a possible outbreak of a deadly virus known as Ebola. Luckily, only a few deaths occurred from the virus and it never spread to the public.

Fast-forward to end of July 2016, with the Summer Olympics quickly approaching, the BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) are busy to make sure the Olympic stadium is secured from any possible terrorist threat or from the many protesters in Rio de Janerio.

Of course Jack Morgan is there, but not for the games; instead he is there to help Octavia "Tavia" Reynaldo, a tall woman who is in charge of Private Rio, to help find the nineteen-year-old Warren twins (Alicia and Natalie) who have been kidnapped by unknown assailants. Jack and Tavia want to make sure that everything goes okay with the ransom and that everyone comes out of the situation safely.

Unfortunately, things are never what they seem to be as the kidnappers could care less about the ransom. They there is something else that they want and kidnapping the twins is the only way to get it. To make the situation even worse, Dr. Castro reemerges from shadows with his own agenda.

Final Thoughts

My feelings for the last batch of adult novels co-authored by James Patterson have been mixed as a few of the stories felt a bit rushed, and some titles were even poorly written. While I do own all the Private novels, the books have never really appealed to me, but for some odd reason the cover for The Games did catch my attention, which happens to be complete different than the cover arts for the other Private titles.

The Games has two different plots, one involving a deadly virus and the other about a kidnapping, which the two are linked together towards the latter half of the novel. When I read the novel last weekend, I thought the plot felt a little too fake, but I've changed my thoughts on the matter after hearing about the Zika Virus panic. Now the plot feels like it was ripped from the headlines.

Jack & Tavia are a little too one-dimensional with absolutely no depth to the characters. They're basically a one-two punch hero/heroine that are always in the right place at the right time; kinda like a badly cliched '80s action flick.

Overall, despite some nitpicking with the characters, I actually enjoyed reading The Games: A Private Novel. The descriptions and the dialogue are better written than the last few adult Patterson titles have been. The plot doesn't play out like your typical novel; thanks to the short chapters, there's always a hook that kept me turning the pages. Before I knew it, I had read the entire novel in one weekend.

*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own.



About the Author: James Patterson received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the 2015 National Book Awards. His other awards include two Emmys, the Edgar Award, and the Children's Choice Award for Author of the Year. He is a tireless champion of the power of books and reading, exemplified by his new children's book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: "We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say: 'PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK.'" He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and has over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at 24 colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries. Patterson will be investing proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.