Worst Case (A Michael Bennett Thriller, 3)

This is the first of the Michael Bennett series I've read. I was pretty well captured from the beginning like I always am with a Patterson thriller. I like the character of Michael Bennett since he's a hard-working NYPD cop who has ten children and works hard raising them. He lost his wife and has a lot of responsibility. He manages to keep his family first and to do a lot with his children who have a nanny, Mary Catherine.In "Worst Case" Bennett is involved in a case that is horrifying to say the least. Francis X. Mooney is a sixties leftover and at first goes along peacefully trying to hand out leaflets about the environment that tell what people can do to help it and with facts about "the state of affairs and our future." (p.6) The people he tries to give the flyers to either throw them away or say something rude to him. Although he doesn't seem like it, he is actually a lawyer and also a very sick man. Since handing out the flyers doesn't work, he feels he must take more drastic measures to get people to understand his cause.Soon after the flyer incident, the child of some wealthy NY people is abducted. Mooney has a test for the abducted teen, and if the child doesn't pass the test, the outcome won't be good. Mooney is such a threat that the FBI sends a top abduction specialist, Emily Parker, to work with Bennett. Together the two, with the help of the NYPD, must find this kidnapper/killer before he does his worst deed ever."Worst Case" has Patterson's usual short chapters and several characters, and the comic relief is the priest at Bennett's church who is also his grandfather. The priest has a great sense of humor and is also a very loving man of faith. People who meet Bennett's ten children remark about their very polite and mannerly behavior.I thought there was enough tension in the book to keep me reading to the end. The end is very suspenseful, and after the other things that Mooney has done in the book, I wondered if he'd get away with his morbid plan.For anyone who likes thrillers I would recommend this book, and for Patterson fans. I'd like to go back and read the first and second installments in the Michael Bennett series. I found "Worst Case" an enjoyable book to relax with on a weekend.

This was my first James Patterson book. Considering his popularity, I was impressed by some aspects of his writing and surprised by others. First, you can tell this was written by a man (men - co writer, too, apparently). It is 'just the facts, ma'am' in its wording and character development for the most part. He does a good job of describing locations and setting, but not so much when it comes the the characters.One pet peeve... He starts a new chapter every few pages. It was nice at first, because it gave you the feel you were really making progress, but it got very annoying toward the end. There were over 100 ch. in this book, and one was actually only half a page long. No kidding. Silly, if you ask me. I can see the need when there's a change of POV (he uses first person for the MMC and third for the other characters), but --even with that-- the number of chapters could have been reduced.Mr. Patterson has definitely done his homework where the city (streets, neighborhoods, locations, rich vs poor, etc.) and the various agencies (law enforcement/government/politics) are concerned. He also weaves a good, suspenseful plot when it comes to the unfolding of the crime and the solving of it. It really starts moving at the half-way mark.However, the throwing out of brand names was excessive, IMO. A little of that is fine for helping the reader visualize items and lending a realistic feel to the story, but the brand-name-dropping went so far that I wondered if he was getting kickbacks for it. (LOL)Although this wasn't of the romance genre, I still didn't like the fact that the hooks/build up of passion as it related to the MCs personal, romantic relationships were left hanging without at least some resolution. Maybe one has to read the series to see the outcome, but in this particular book, the nanny, Mary Catherine, says 'we'll talk about this tomorrow' (paraphrasing here) and then the book jumps a week (or more) into the future and the reader is never made privy to the afore-mentioned planned conversation. Considering what the conversation was to be about (a passionate kiss between him and the kids' nanny), it was a real let down when it didn't happen. Patterson didn't need to have them make any commitments/firm decisions, if he wishes to save it for the next book, but he could have at least let us in on what was said and how the characters decided to leave things between them.All in all, good, but not great. Three stars.

Another enjoyable read courtesy of James Patterson. I read a lot of negativity on Goodreads and Amazon about him using ghost writers, blah, blah, blah, but to be brutally honest I couldn't give a toss. I enjoy them and in fairness, that is between him and somebody else if it's the case and really nobody else's business !!I'm late reaching this instalment of Michael Bennett stories as I wait till prices drop but the series is as good as it always has been. It was nice to catch up with him and his brood. My only gripe was where I needed to keep looking up American acronyms on Google !! THAT is highly annoying.I did spot a line using terrible English and was pretty shocked to see it-"I, two other Major Case detectives, and a PD tech were stationed..."...ouch !! The he mentioned someone being in a child's school desk....should have been at. He was hardly inside it !! Twice he used the expression "booked" and "booking" but I couldn't even find that on Google in the context he was referring to and the same for the word "pooched".I liked the idea behind the puzzle their abductor gave them and the fact that only one was able to answer his quiz. The character of Emily was a great one and I am hoping she'll maybe pop up again in this series as well.

I have read all of James Patterson’s books and to be frank they can be hit and miss. Sometimes he can produce fantastic stories but in recent years it seems like he churns out so many books that sometimes the story doesn’t have the author’s whole focus. The Michael Bennett series is co-written with Michael Lewidge.This particular book I really enjoyed. I have also read the two previous Michael Bennett novels so I already had some background on the characters which always helps. The second book in the Michael Bennett series (Run for your life) I rated at 4 out of 5 and to be honest this book was no different. The character himself is pretty good, he is clearly a family man but one who loves his family and that comes across well with the writing. The added bonus of this book is the angle of the love life interest. The only thing was with this angle is that it felt very rushed, almost like JP/ML felt they had to introduce somebody.We don’t hear as much about Michael’s family which is a shame because his Grandfather Seamus was featured a little more heavily ion the previous book and he is a great character.As for the killer himself, we see the story written from his perspective and to be honest this was the weakest are of the book. It almost felt a little rushed and there was no real depth to him. However as usual, James Patterson manages to balance out these flaws with his style of writing. His chapters are short and sharp and always paced quickly meaning they keep you a little hooked. I always find that no matter what my opinion of the story or characters I am always compelled to keep reading. Maybe this is why his books are such a success? Up until the release of ‘I Alex Cross’ which was quite recent, I actually preferred the Michael Bennett series. After that recent release I again became latched with the Alex Cross character. I must say though that after reading this Michael Bennett book, he may not be my favourite of the JP characters but I definitely want to see more of him.All in all James Patterson hasn’t failed to deliver a good book. My only concern is that I never feel like it’s a five star read lately like I have with other authors such as Dennis Lehane. I think that he produces so many books in such a short space of time that the reader never quite feels like he has immersed himself fully with one character and concentrated on that one book. Overall he is still a great author and I would recommend his books to anybody as they are an enjoyable read. JP had better watch out though, recently some great authors have been producing 5 star books which may threaten his status as the number one Crime Writer.

As a Patterson fan I've found many of his recent (often 'co-written') books rather disappointing and lacking depth. I don't mind novels where we know the 'baddie' from the onset...the thrill for the reader is the twists in the plot when the detectives chip away at the weaknesses and mistakes of the villain. Unfortunately, for the first 70% (literally) of this book, Detective Mike Bennett and his FBI colleague flounder around blindly all over the city at the whim of Mooney without making a single breakthrough or link to the victims - And I couldn't help feeling that I'd read this rather cliched plot before...several times. I skimmed through the last 30% just to get to the end and see if there was any more to the story (a slight twist around 95% but nothing earth shattering). There were hints we'd get some romance, but both those leads fizzled out very unsatisfactorily for the reader (and Bennett). This novel hasn't prompted me to fork out for the next one.

I have never written a book and the reason for that is because i think it would be exactly like this one,bad dialogue,poor plot and full of every cop cliche in the book...I read the first two books in the series and i enjoyed them,i knew that Patterson didn't write every word and that at best they are good holiday reading but i couldn't even finsih this one.Maybe it is my fault having come off reading a Tom Clancy novel where he fits as many words onto the poage as he possibly can,here the authors seem to try to fit as little on a page as possible,pages start half way down and it really should be placed in the oversized novels section the words are that large.When the cops start yelling at a kidnapp victim parent becasue he is nasty to them it just lost all of what little believability there was left in the story...Very poor.

No. 3 in the series and still as good as the first. Fast paced and really enjoyable. I came across this series by accident when I picked up “Step on a crack” whilst on holiday and am so glad I did. Well worth a read.