Book Review: Private Vegas by James Patterson

Private Vegas
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publication date: 9th April 2015
Publisher: Arrow Books
Pages: 501

Summary:

Las Vegas is a city of contradictions: seedy and glamorous, secretive and wild, Vegas attracts people of all kinds – especially those with a secret to hide, or a life to leave behind. It’s the perfect location for Lester Olsen’s lucrative business. He gets to treat gorgeous, young women to five-star restaurants, splashy shows, and limo rides – and then he teaches them how to kill.

Private owner Jack Morgan spends most of his time in Los Angeles, where his top investigation firm has its headquarters. But a hunt for two criminals leads him to the city of sin – and to a murder ring that is more seductively threatening than anything he’s witnessed before.

Source: Goodreads

Thoughts:

I’m not sure why I keep picking up James Patterson books. The first two I read were really great (one of which I reviewed: Private Paris) but everything since has been an eye-rolling disappointment (…Private India).

“I sipped the drink, which looked like milk. It was, in fact, milk.”

“Private Vegas” is the 9th book in the Private series and based on its name, you would think it was set in Vegas, right? It’s not, or very very little of it is. I actually read somewhere that only 6 of the 160 chapters mention Vegas and this can partly be explained by the fact that even the main character is not located there, he’s in LA. Reading “Private Paris” I recall reading about the city, its people and its culture. This is completely missing here and in my opinion, “Private Vegas” is completely mislabelled.

Sadly the plot doesn’t redeem this one either; Jack Morgan and his team are exploring four disjointed storylines all happening at the same time. These books are usually easy reads but this made it all very confusing; there were characters I couldn’t remember and plot lines I couldn’t follow and I despite reading every word, I honestly couldn’t tell you the main plot of this book.

I have one more Private book glaring at me on the shelf but luckily I have plenty of books to get through before I give James Patterson one last chance to redeem himself.

Overall rating: “Private Vegas” is just not worth your time. It’s confusing, it’s disjointed, it’s long and it’s not even set in the title location! I was not impressed and I’m giving the 9th Private book just 1 star.

See my other reviews of books by James Patterson here: