“Private London” by James Patterson and Mark Pearson – The Ripper Returns

If you have read James Patterson and Mark Pearson’s previous works, then you probably already know about Private, the world’s most resourceful and technologically-advanced detective agency, at the head of which sits Jack Morgan.

Quite recently the authors have published their latest novel, Private London, and as you can probably tell, this time around, we get a look at how the organization operates in London, where an obviously-deranged killer is kidnapping, mutilating and murdering women on the streets, not unlike Jack the Ripper a few decades ago.

Alongside the murder investigation is also the story of Hannah Shapiro who had the fortune to be saved by Jack Morgan from a certain death eight years ago. In an attempt to rebuild her life, she moved to London and started anew.

However, regardless of how far she moved the horrors never left her, and as it happens, her life is once again in great danger, and the only one who can help her is Dan Carter, the ex-husband of Kristy Webb, the woman who is investigating the London murders.

As is customary for Patterson and Pearson’s books, length-wise, the story is relatively short, but sweet, not to mention there are multiple stories happening.

Even though I talked about Hannah’s story after the other one, it definitely is the main one, building on events from previous books (however, you don’t exactly need to have read the previous ones to enjoy this one).

I have to say that in comparison to the second story, this one is a bit simpler, but a bit more interesting as well; rest assured you’ll be introduced to plenty surprising plot twists that will make you want to keep on going.

This isn't one of those stories where you can easily predict what is going to happen next, even though it does feel like you have heard this somewhere before.

As for the second story, I find it to be at an above-average level, but the double-storyline thing really works against it. The way I see it, in a good murder mystery the characters, including both the protagonist and the antagonist, need to be developed to a point where you can clearly imagine them physically and map them out mentally.

There needs to be some kind of connection between the reader and actors of a story, and the lack of text dedicated to this mystery does nothing but hurt it.

Some of the passages are even quite convoluted and rushed… in general, it feels that the authors needed more space to make their beast grow. Nevertheless, it is interesting and will probably do a good job at making your just curious enough to finish it.

All in all, I heavily recommend this book to anyone who likes simple yet intelligent thrillers and murder mysteries.

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	James B. Patterson Personal site James Patterson is an American writer who has dedicated a large part of his literary career to writing murder-related thrillers, inventing in the process two memorable character-based series in Alex Cross and Michael Bennett. His most prominent works include Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider.
	Mark Pearson Mark Pearson is a person who has been co-authoring numerous books alongside James Patterson amongst many others, in addition to which he has his own series following DI Jack Delaney. His works are nearly always detective thrillers.