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jwhite412
Oct 21, 2012jwhite412 rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
Everyone touts the fabulousness of James Patterson, so I decided to read this. I was very disappointed. Washington DC Detective, who is retiring the day the novel opens, decides to skip off to North Carolina (not his jurisdiction) to reopen a closed murder case (suspect is on death row) for a third party friend (not the victim). Without any mention of Departmental Approval, he makes numerous interstate trips (in the company car?) shoots up people and places (with his departmental weapon?), and frequently pisses off the Navy - which is covering up a huge conspiracy of some sort, and never gets a single phone call from his boss saying "we're in your office with your retirement cake… where the hell are you, and what they hell are you doing?" He does touch base with a friend in the FBI, who may want to hire him when he retires, and borrows some nifty new toys for this rogue investigation he is performing, but STILL never checks in or does a single jot of paperwork for his own department. Within the first fraction of the investigation I was screaming. None of the obvious questions were asked. If Cooper was at the bar all night because he couldn't get ahold of his fiancée; and when he finally went home, she still wasn't there; and then when the Navy came to his door and arrested him for the murders he didn't commit he thought it was his fiancée finally coming home… WHERE WAS HIS FIANCEE ALL NIGHT? No one ever interviewed her, and she never appears in the novel. Also, the wheelchair kid who SAW the three real murderers going to the Jackson house videotaping their deeds… he reported his observations to the Navy, right? They were ignored. When Detective Cross re-discovers this kid and brings this evidence to light, and witnesses start getting shot…. Why does no one think to place this kid in protective custody? Come to think of it, WHY DOES NOTHING HAPPEN to that kid? THAT would have been a good plot device. I could go on forever, but I will just mention in conclusion that Detective Cross puts a "clip" in his handgun. Attention all fraudulent police genre writers: the item is called a "magazine". Thank you.