By James Patterson Private Down Under (Unabridged) [Aud… (2024)

I rarely give out 1 star ratings, but when I do, the book was really terrible. James Patterson is one of my favorite authors, so giving him a one star rating is not as easy as it looks like. This is his weakest novel so far, among those that I've read. What a shame to be part of the "Private series".

I loved Private London, Berlin and L.A so much that the Private series was among my favorite crime series of all time. I still consider it as one of my favorites, but this book was just boring. Not only was the plot predictable, but the characters were flat and undeveloped. Only Justine was fun to read, but she was already introduced early on in the series, so she's not really the main character here. Craig Gisto had a huge potential to be good in the beginning of the novel, but he ventured off a cliff throughout the novel. His ego was not as natural as the author wanted it to be. He seemed pretentious, for me.

I checked other reviews to see if maybe I'm the only one who hated this, but I've seen a lot of 1 and 2 star ratings everywhere. Some reviews are a lot meaner than mine, but if Patterson's not among my favorites, I would've tortured this novel by writing a really hate filled review. After reading about 10 reviews, I was enlightened that this book was as accurate as sh*t. Apparently the author, Michael White, didn't do much research of Australia, even though he's Australian. I don't live in Australia, so I can't really comment on the inaccuracy, but just a heads up for the Aussies out there.

1 star. If only I could give a book 0/5 rating, this would receive it in an instant. If I were you I'd read something else of Patterson. He can tell a good story, but Private Down Under is not a good example of what he can really do.

Craig Gisto, originally from the UK and living in Australia for many years, opened the new Private office in the centre of Sydney. Within hours the cases were beginning to build – there was a killer of young women on the prowl. And in the meantime, one of the wealthy Asian identities of Sydney contacted Private – his son had been kidnapped. When his bullet riddled body turned up, the hunt was on.

Private Oz is #7 in the Private series and this time set in Sydney, Australia. But to us Australians, the mistakes are glaringly obvious. Minor ones like spelling – we say Mum (not the US Mom) in Australia (and the UK for that matter, where Craig Gisto originated from) – and tyre/tire; footpath/sidewalk – the list goes on. But it’s the bigger errors that have tripped author James Patterson up. Fahrenheit when we do Celcius; miles when we do kilometers…

Private Oz is a fast-paced thriller – which Mr Patterson does well – but his research leaves much to be desired in this instance. A shame he let himself and his reading public (especially the Aussies) down.

Please Mr. Patterson. STOP IT.

For the first time ever, I read other reviews to check that I wasn't being ridiculous. BUT if you are using a location as your ONLY new angle on the same old, same old please try get the location right. As many of my fellow Aussies have commented - seventy degrees in Sydney is just a very embarrassing (for you and your editor) editing issue. Today was a record breaking 44 degrees in Sydney - because we use Celsius. And cell phones, and kilometres, and Australian Idol is in the last quarter of the year....all little details you would have learnt if any of your team had done a little work.

Also, I think ANYWHERE in the world, but certainly in Australia where serial killers don't come around as often as your novels, no woman would go for a jog by herself, same routine and time every day, when four other woman all from within a kilometer or so of her house have been brutally murdered over the last few weeks. And NO senior police officer Husband would allow her to do so either.

So, Mr Patterson's fans,don't waste your time with this, it is unrealistic, repetitive of any others in this series, and a total dud. Why did I finish it? Other than the fact that it is so easy to read with such short chapters, Mr Patterson's earlier work has built him a reputation and I keep reading his novels HOPING that one day his ability will come back. Until it does I would beg him to keep these 'works' Private in every sense of the word.

Private, book No. 6 - Private open an office in Australia and find themselves looking for an errant husband, protecting a pop star, getting caught up in a Triad case and looking into a serial killer… of housewives. Good read. 6 out of 12.

Private Oz is the fourth novel in the Private series by James Patterson and is co-written by Michael White. Soon after Jack Morgan’s 2nd in charge, Justine Smith arrives in Sydney for the grand opening of Private Sydney, a horribly mutilated Asian man stumbles into Private’s party and dies of gunshot wounds. Ho Meng, the man’s father, engages Private to investigate as he doesn’t trust the Police: Private Sydney’s first case.

But soon, Private Sydney’s boss Craig Gisto, has more to investigate: a string of women is disfigured, stabbed and left to die with a wad of fake banknotes intimately placed; a 26-year-old rock star is worried his manager is arranging for him to join Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and others in “Club 27”; and a businessman’s wife is worried about his recent disappearance, considering the tenor of some of his business dealings.

Of the characters, the majority are two-dimensional: the most interesting was the serial killer. None of the Private staff were interesting enough to want to read more of. The computer nerd was a stuttering stereotype. Again, Patterson features ultra-short chapters. I noticed the characters celebrated by toasting with Verve: I think they may have meant Veuve (Cliquot).

I was interested to read this novel as I wanted to see just how well Patterson and White could portray Sydney and Australians. Certainly the location was Sydney: the streets, schools and various organisations attested to that. But these events could have happened anywhere: apart from the setting, there is very little Oz about this novel. Australians (and Brits) refer to their mothers as mum, not mom. Since before 1988, Australia has used Celsius instead of Fahrenheit to report temperature, kilometres instead of miles for distance, kilograms instead of pounds for weight.

Down here we have the colour grey, not gray. Our paper money is notes, not bills. Mary’s use of the f word is not typical of Australian women. And the list goes on: tire (tyre), sidewalk (footpath), gas station (petrol station), alley (lane, although they couldn’t make up their minds about this and used both), cell phone (mobile), drugstore (pharmacy), windshield (windscreen), slot machines (poker machines), pissed with (pissed off with), ass (arse), wop (wog), and college (Uni).

It’s disappointing that an international best-selling author chooses to tailor his writing to only an American readership, assuming they are too stupid or lazy to work out that Australians use some words and systems different from what they do. To achieve a genuine Aussie feel, Patterson & White could have included a glossary for their international readers; failing that, the most basic find-and-replace word processing program could have ensured that the version published in Australia used metric and words like footpath, petrol station and mum.

As with Private London (which lacked a true British feel) and the fiasco that was Cross Country (set on the African continent), this is a poor effort. My advice to Mr Patterson is to stick to where you know (USA) because you sure don’t know Australia. I would have rated this higher except that I was so disgusted with the lack of Australian vernacular.

The audio book was fine but I found the overall book not as good as the first few. I most likely will be stopping this series...for a long while.

DNF

A word to the wise…you just may want to skip this review…

BUT, before you do, I have discovered that there's another Private book set in Australia titled Private Down Under, published in 2013, a year after Private Oz. From what I can see they are the same book. NAUGHTY!

Now, where was I before I so rudely interrupted myself?

I started reading this book as soon as I finished “Private” and what a huge difference and disappointment. It’s easy to see that the two books had different co-authors. “Private” was written by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, and I really enjoyed it, but this collaboration between Patterson and Michael White sucks!

Michael White is a British author who moved to Australia in 2002 and now resides in Perth. So…he’d been here for ten years when Private Oz was published. Really? Could have fooled me. After that length of time you would think that he’d know that:

We measure distance in kilometres, not miles.
We measure temperatures in Celsius, not Farenheit. “My car’s thermometer read 92 degrees.” Really? Wonder where he bought the car?
We measure weight in kilograms, not pounds.
We have mobile phones, not cell phones.
We have petrol stations, not gas stations.
We don’t say a “fifth” of bourbon.
We don’t have drugstores.
We have tyres on our vehicles, not tires.
Every time we say dollar we don’t prefix it with Australian. We KNOW it’s an Australian dollar.
We have fifty-dollar notes, not fifty-dollar bills.
We don’t finish our sentences with “yeah?”
There is no Sandville in the western suburbs of Sydney.
We have the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) and the Australian Secret Intelligence Organization (ASIO) NOT the Australian Intelligence Agency.
The Old Quarantine Station at Manly was only used to quarantine visitors suspected to be carrying contagious diseases such as Spanish Influenza, Smallpox or Bubonic Plague. Not ALL visitors to Australia were quarantined before being allowed into the country.

And this gem from Amazon reviewer, Birdcage…”And as for our Customs not only allowing a bankrupted Yank with a criminal record into the country but giving him residency....we stopped importing convicts in the early eighteen hundreds.” This cracked me up!

On the plus side:

At least he got the “Maccas” right! That counts for something, I guess.
And they called 000 for emergency, not 911.

This story could have been set in any major city in the world. Writing a book but never spent much time in Sydney? Not a problem. Google Maps is a wonderful thing. Just throw some well-known street names, a few well-known suburbs and few famous locations like the Harbour Bride, the Opera House and Luna Park into the story and call it done. There’s no real sense of Sydney or Australia in this story. We’re told not shown. “We turned onto the Quay and I pointed out the sights to Justine. She was quiet, taking it all in, but not “oohing” and “ahhing” as some tourists might.” What sights? And this is just one example.

As for the characters, they were so one-dimensional and bland that at times I forgot who was who.

The multiple storylines of Chinese Triads, a female serial killer, a rock star, drugs, brothels and blackmail were unbelievable.

And so, with only 68 pages to go I retired to vent my spleen.

3.5 Stars for Private Down Under (audiobook) by James Patterson and Michael White read by Tim Wright.

The brand new investigation team at Private Australia has to cut their celebration short as a bullet riddled man stumbles into their launch party. It looks like a kidnapping gone wrong but the details get more complicated quickly. And then the bodies start piling up as it becomes obvious that this isn’t a one off.

I don't know why I keep reading James Patterson's books. I think it is just a bad habit that I need to break. Thank God it is a very fast read!! Very little character development, story lines all over the place...just more James Patterson fluff!! In looking at many of the other reviews that readers have posted, I see that I'm not alone in thinking that JP has let his standards fall...A LOT!! I did get a chuckle seeing that other readers also noticed the fixation on vomiting!

It was great to have a private book set in Australia, it would have been nice if there has been a little more attention paid to the details on setting. There are to many issues to list but one that struck me most was the temperature was said to be 93 I actually burst out laughing, which was not the reaction the author was after. It was obviously Fahrenheit but come on folks we are in Australia we use Celsius.
That being said I still enjoyed the novel. There are two unrelated mysteries running through this novel and they were both quite engaging. If you are looking for a faced paced read with something a little different then give this series a go. The narrator actually managed to do an ok Aussie accent which is a plus also.

I really liked these characters and the crime plots. I already figured out that the Private novels in the international agencies can be hit or miss but this one was a hit. I hope for more Private novels from Oz and Berlin so far! The crazy killer crime plot was very intriguing to read.

My quick and simple overall: entertaining and very quick pace.

Well boo hoo, how disappointing. I'm usually rather partial to a James Patterson novel but sadly this was dreadful. Flitting backwards and forwards with uninteresting characters.
🙄

Although James Patterson is a good author, this is likely his worst story. There's zero credibility when professionals literally behave like teen groupies. Best if this were "Buried Down Under," instead. 0 of 10 stars

This was not one of favourites from this author....if your book is set in Australia, speak australian lingo and terms.

meh

I'll start off by saying that this book was given to me as a present and although I have read similar books this isn't one that I would have bought myself.

This is the first of the Private series of books that I have read; you don't need to have read any of the previous ones to read this one although a couple of characters from prior books do get a mention here and there.

Living in Sydney it was a bit of a Novelty at first to read a book set in Sydney but after a while it felt like the Author was just including as many place names as they could so ended up being a bit annoying.

The author obviously did a lot of research on the local area and knows the names of wealthy suburbs & schools as well as trendy pubs etc. However there are quite a few mistakes such as Australian characters using Mom (instead of Mum), temperature in F not C. referring to a poorer suburb as 'the projects' & 'the ghetto' which we don’t do in Australia to name a few.

The storyline is average, there are 4 unrelated cases that are being investigated, none of them have any twists or turns and the investigators seem to just stumble onto each clue along the way.
On the plus side it is easy to read and is a page turner, I put that down to the fact that chapters are two and a half pages long on average so there’s a lot of half pages, also you go to put the book down then realise there only one or two pages till the end of the next chapter so decide to read that as well.

If you're a fan of James Patterson or the Private series give it a go otherwise I'm sure there are far better books out there.

Blech. For the most part, I have actually enjoyed the Private books. This one, not so much. Some of it, I can pin down, other parts I can't.

I hated how insincere it came across as an Australian book. As mentioned in a lot of reviews, the language was off. But also, it drove me nuts that the characters kept saying "Australian dollars"...guess what, they are in frickin Australia, I am pretty sure they would just say dollars.

Then the characters. I get that you have to create a new slew of characters every time a new location gets opened, but come on. Do they all have to be gorgeous model/geniuses/rich/everything! Look at the nerds of the world, how many actually started out as models. We have to put up with enough of the ridiculously pretty people doing this stuff (in heels and designer clothes) on tv, I shouldn't have to put up with it in a book.

And then the storylines were so far apart that the interest level couldn't even stay. Chinese Triads. Serial killer in affluent neighbourhood. Rock star. All a little much and trying way too hard. And then the weird out of place story with the main character and his cousin. They allude to the fact that the man's wife and child were killed, but his behaviour does not once reflect this throughout the story, constantly ogling his co-workers and being smarmy.

Definitely the weak point in the Private books in my opinion.

Not the best novel in the Private series.

Private has opened an office in Sydney, Australia lead by Craig Gisto. Right away there have 3 cases to solve:
1. A very rich business man's son was kidnapped and killed by a gang.
2. Women in an exclusive neighbourhood are being targeted and killed.
3. A rock star is convinced that his manager is going to kill him.

Story line number 2 was by far the most exciting. However, I didn't like that the killer was revealed pretty early on. The motive was interesting that I never guessed.

I didn't love the new Private office and I found that Craig and his team only found the killers due to advanced technologies instead of investigating and brain power.

Not sure why Justine (from Private LA) was in this novel. The authors could of used her more instead of just being a background character.

Overall, the story was a quick read with a semi ok mystery plot.

I really enjoy the books in this series that are set outside of the United States. They’re so much more fun to read about, mostly because I’m not a huge fan of he dynamic of the Private main office.
I loved learning about some new characters handling some incredibly intense cases in this book. It was fast paced from the beginning and kept you on the edge of your seat.
I do have to say this, I really want one of Patterson’s characters to be described as ugly just once. I’m tired of reading about these incredibly attractive people and their incredibly attractive partners. Let them be ordinary for once! Let them be smart and unattractive! They don’t all need to be perfect specimen all the time!

This is my first taste of the Private series. It feels like a script for a television pilot. Flashy, atmospheric, with multiple predictable plots. But the characters are likable and memorable.

As someone who had never read any James Patterson, but had read about James Patterson and his sausage factory of creative pursuits, I had to see what all the fuss was about, and so I made the fateful decision to start here. An odd choice, you might think, given it's the seventh book in a series, but there were two compelling reasons for my particular selection:

1. It was three dollars at my local Vinnies; and
2. It's set in Sydney, and I live in Sydney, so I figured it would be fun to read how my home city is written by the number one selling thriller author in the world.

Spoiler Alert on Point 2: BAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDLLLLLYYYYY.

The factual errors here are freaking legion, people. From the fact that people refer to temperature using the Fahrenheit scale (we use Celsius here in good old Oz), to the references to miles and yards as measures of distance (Aussies use the metric system), to the bastardisation of geography (the Western Suburbs does not possess any ghettos, I'm afraid), to straight making up suburbs (there's no such place as Sandsville!). But by far the most egregious offence comes when our lead character goes into a bar and orders a Fosters. A FOSTERS! Why not throw another shrimp on the barbie whilst you're at it??

For the unaware, Fosters is a beer marketed to Americans, as a beer that Australians drink.

At first, I let these issues slide. I figured that Patterson was pitching this at an American audience, and that informed his (and his co-writer's) choices. (His co-writer is British, by the way, and lives in Australia, though you'd never know it from the issues listed above.) I let the making up of suburbs go, as well, along with the flourishes of adding ghettos to the West. James Patterson has made very clear in interviews I've seen from him that he doesn't "write reality". So on I pushed, accepting the man's creative choices, whilst not particularly enjoying them.

But then there was the Fosters incident. Unforgivable! If the character had a condition that destroyed all his taste buds and obliterated his gag reflex, then MAYBE.

(One last note on this: To me, James Patterson and Michael White are like the kids who didn't study for a test and bullsh*tted their way through it. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that they got someone to publish said test for a sizable advance and fee, then foisted it upon an unsuspecting populace who trust the Patterson brand, and who want to see what the fuss is about.)

Moving on now, to another dimension. The first dimension. I'll call it the "ONE DIMENSION". It's important, because it's where

The characters in this book are so paper thin, when they turn sideways, they disappear. Here are a few choice passages to describe main characters and supporting players:

"She was a cool contrast ... beautiful and brilliant. The only nerd who could grace the centrefold of Playboy."

"Lower North Shore Yummy Mummy, maybe Eastern Suburbs, but a little too cool."

"She had a narrow waist, flat tummy, firm boobs." Following this description, where the character is "considering" her own naked body, she says to no one: "Gotta be some benefits to eating nothing and having no bambini, I guess."

I'll spare you further examples.

How's the prose? About what you'd expect. Short, to the point, expressed in a manner that's designed to appeal to people who don't read a lot. Nothing wrong with that--not everyone wants dense or elegant prose. That said, the whole thing felt rushed, like they published the second draft. Formatting errors abounded ... my wife picked up the book and within one minute she had found three errors. Without trying.

But the story? That was at least something, right? No. Just ... no. This, more than any other factor, is what earned Private Oz a single star from me.

The execution was horrendous. Finding out the killer's motive after it's all said and done, with an exposition dump of "Oh, by the way, here's why she did it?" Several story-lines which share nothing in common, come together in no satisfying manner, and resolve in ways that were as anticlimactic as finding out that the cool jumping castle you were promised for your birthday has arrived, but it's got a hole in it so big that you'll never get to pump it up and jump, jump, jump for joy like you had been looking forward to doing for weeks? Look no further, friend. This book has got all those disappointments and more besides.

In a word? Rubbish. The entire book, from start to end. Rubbish.

In conclusion, I want to be clear that I'm not a Patterson hater ... I wish him all the very best with what he does. I know his creative method is offensive to some, but not to me. People are free to create art in whatever way makes them happy, suits their purpose, or that they think will sell. I'm in no position to look down on anyone else's method for creating the product or art. I am, however, in a position to look down on this lazy, dull, poorly executed, poorly plotted, badly written piece of junk that reads like the first effort from a particularly earnest crime writer trying their hand at the genre, with typos and all.

Don't read this. Ever. For any reason.

I'm going to go and have a Fosters now to calm my jangled nerves. But oh wait, I can't. Know why? BECAUSE I LIVE IN SYDNEY!

Hard to believe this is the fifth installment that I've read in Patterson's Private series, and nothing here has changed my opinion that this is the best series he and his various partners are serving up these days (this one is co-written with Michael White). It's also easy to read; I polished the whole thing off in one day of spare time (admittedly on a Saturday when college football games dominated the TV and I was able to keep one eye on my Kindle Fire and the other on the action). I'll also point out that the last 12% is a three-chapter preview of Burn, the next in his Michael Bennett series that I believe is scheduled for publication Sept. 29, 2014.

For those who don't know, Private is a high-tech, highly successful investigation agency with offices all over the world (hence Private Berlin, Private L.A., etc. In this one, Craig Cristo has formed a new office in Sydney, Australia, with the help of the drop-dead gorgeous and highly experienced Justine, who also happens to be the main squeeze of Jack Morgan, founder/owner of Private. As they throw a big bash to kick off the opening, a young Asian man - complete with bullet holes and a few missing body parts - stumbles onto the scene (pretty much putting the kabosh on the party spirit).

As it turns out, it may have been a kidnapping gone awry, and the man's father (who hates the police) believes it's related to the lucrative world of imported drugs and wants Private to do their thing. That gives the new company some serious business, but as if that weren't enough, a friend of the New South Wales Police Department, turns up brutally murdered. That investigation leads to the discovery that she's not the first - nor is she the last, since more murders start happening in fairly rapid succession.

As with the others in the series, this one is relatively predictable and won't challenge anyone's gray matter - making it perfect for reading on the beach, by a cozy fire or, as in my case, cheering on "my" Ohio State University Buckeyes (and in any case, preferably with a glass of wine in hand).

This is a really ordinary book, paper thin plot with next to no suspense, two dimensional characters, plus a weird obsession with people vomiting.

It looks too like the Australian research consisted of Google Maps to get some suburbs and road names. As a note to the author: in Australia we speak in Celsius, kilometres and kilograms! We don't use cells, just mobile phones .. the list could choose on! Mind you, the lack of localisation meant we were spared the stereotypes normally put on Australians in US/UK books, so that's a good thing.

Fans of Paterson may enjoy this, as its his usual style.

What started off as such a great series has gone downhill fast.
I said to myself after reading the last Private book, 'No more' but as an Aussie I thought it may redeam itself, as this book was based in Australia. Nope. Sorely disappointed.

Too predictable. Too gory for shock value only. Characters not well developed. Lots of plots which made me finish the book, but also left me not wanting to read any more Private books (And I've read others and enjoyed them - Private and Private London)

This is the first time I've decided to stop a book half way through. I love all Patterson's books but this one is not good. It is was confusing that I couldn't follow it all. There were so many characters and crimes and I couldn't keep them all straight.

Not his best Private book.

Even for a Patterson this book was fairly rushed. The lead character doesn't get a proper introduction at the very beginning (aside from reading the back cover) and the 'glamorous launch party' receives hardly any detail as a body is found straightaway. I initially thought I had missed something!
As usual with the Private series, this book has multiple cases (I think 4 or 5? I lost count) and again some of these could have been culled to flesh out other aspects of the book.

This series continues to get better with each book, Intense and makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

This edition of Private comes from another international locale, this time in Australia where the company is opening a new office in Sydney. Jack Morgan has sent Justine Smith to help Craig Gisto, who once ran a private investigative firm of his own before he was recruited to head this new branch of Private. Justine has family in Sydney. Her sister Greta is married to Brett Thorogood the deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Police. Craig and Brett are not only friends but are both eager to partner together and work on future cases.

Craig initially appears to be overly confident, egotistical and savvy but his flippant manner hides a personal tragedy. His wife Becky and his three-year old son Cal were killed by a drunk driver in an automobile accident and he has been left alone. Before he married Becky, she had been with Mark Talbot, Craig’s cousin. Mark still loved Becky when she left him and to this day he carries a grudge against Craig. Mark now works with the Sydney police as an inspector and the paths of the two men are bound to cross. Especially now that Brett Thorougood who is friends with Craig, has already sent out a message informing his staff that they have an arrangement to work cooperatively with Private, sharing intel and helping each other with various cases. Craig knows that any investigation he works on with Mark Talbot will be fraught with tension. They have a difficult history that goes back even before their romance with Becky.

Like other Private offices this one has its own staff of specialists. In the Sydney branch Darlene Cooper is the techno and lab guru, a woman who is both beautiful and brilliant; Mary Clarke is a top rate investigator and Craig’s second-in-command and Johnny Ishmah, a young immigrant and beginner investigator, seems to have packed a lifetime of experience into his mere twenty-three years of life. He has done everything from teaching bungee jumping to earning a degree in psychology and is anxious to do well in his new job. Cookie is the ultra-hip receptionist who has caught Johnny’s eye.

The grand party celebrating the opening of the new branch is interrupted by the stark arrival of a young Asian man crashing through the door and landing on the floor. He has a hood over his face and his body is covered with stab and bullet wounds. His eyes have been gouged out and his thigh looks like a slab of fresh meat. He had reached the reception through the garage which was now covered with blood and broken glass. The guard manning the security cameras is unconscious but alive and the hard drive is gone.

The man with the hood is dead but it is evident from his wounds he had been held captive some place, tortured over a period of days and somehow delivered to them. Whoever he was, he was rich. His jacket is Prada and his hair was well cut. It looks like he was kidnapped, but either escaped from his kidnappers or was let go because he served no useful purpose.

The police identify the victim as Chang, the younger of Ho Meng’s two sons. Ho Meng is a well-known wealthy importer-exporter and reported his son missing two days ago. At one time, Ho Meng was a commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force but left and emigrated to Australia. Ho tells Craig he does not trust the Australian Police and won’t work with them. He hires Private Sydney to find his son’s killer and says he will pay whatever it costs.

Darlene’s work in the lab leads to the first break in the case. She matches the ink from the tattoo on the skin of Chang’s assailants to the that used by the notorious Triad Gang. Ho Meng is not surprised. It is exactly what he had expected. When he was in Hong Kong he helped break up the Triad gangs and is convinced the attack on his younger son is an act of revenge. He had received a ransom note demanding he cooperate with the gang smuggling heroin from Hong Kong into Sydney but Mo Hung refused, knowing they would kill his son no matter what he did. He is also convinced the same gang killed his wife Jiao twelve years ago when they first came to Australia. Her killer was never found and he has since held a grudge against the Sydney Police.

Private Sydney accepts the case but it is not long before Chang’s older brother Dai disappears. Another ransom note is left for Ho Meng with an ultimatum expressed by something in a simple cardboard shoe box. Everyone knows that the only chance they have of saving Ho Meng’s son is to convince the gang he will do what they want.

Inspector Talbot is Craig’s assigned municipal police contact on the case which will make things difficult. They have been at loggerheads with each other since they were teenagers.

In a second case, popular rock star Mickey Spencer is convinced his manager Ricky Holt is trying to kill him because he is worth more to him dead than alive. Holt was the man who had turned Mickey into a big-time solo star after he left his band Fun Park but lately his career has taken a tumble. Mickey has convinced himself Holt is going to knock him off and benefit from the sales of a dead star. He has become obsessed by the history of the Club Twenty-Seven, whose members include dead pop stars who checked out when they turned twenty-seven. Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouses all checked out of life early and thousands were made in sales after their deaths. Mickey is now twenty-six, so he feels his time is coming up and he is genuinely scared. Is Mickey delusional or is Ricky Holt quietly pushing Mickey into killing himself? Mickey is bound to Holt by a watertight contract and he cannot just walk away and leave him, so he hires Private to find out what is going on and protect him.

This will be the first case that Craig has assigned Johnny to work on his own. He is both proud and a little scared to be working solo, anxious to prove to Craig he deserves the place Craig has given him at Private. The case will have an element of fun as well. It will be the first time Johnny gets to work with a genuine pop star and peak behind the curtains of the rock and roll lifestyle with its wild parties where expensive champagne flows and cocaine is plentiful and free.

In Private's third case, someone is murdering beautiful, fashionable and wealthy women, but no one can figure out why. The first victim is Stacy Fleetwood, a friend of Greta, the sister of Justine and the wife of the Deputy Commissioner. It is not long before more dead bodies appear in the wealthy area of Bellevue Hill where large comfortable homes predominate quiet tree lined streets. The murders are not about robbery, as the victim’s jewelry and their high-end purses are left untouched. The victims have been tortured and the body left with fifty-dollar bills stuffed between their legs. What does that mean? Justine recognizes this is not just a spontaneous act, but one that has been well planned and every element in the murder scene has meaning, one they must figure out to stop the madness.

Patterson and White take readers into the mind of a deranged killer as more women are stalked and killed. Approaching the murders this way allows readers to make some sense of the killer’s actions. Murderers on killing sprees are bound to make a small mistake sometime, somewhere or somehow and Private must be astute enough to recognize it when it happens, observant enough to pick it up and careful enough to use it in the best way possible to solve the crime.

This is another faced paced thriller in the Private series which has proven to be a little uneven so far. I settled on a three-star rating for this installment and tried to push it to four, but it just didn’t make it.