PRIVATE MOSCOW

4 stars out of 5

Hard to believe this is the 15th book in the Private series - several of which I've read; at this point, in fact, it's my favorite of the Patterson-Author Du Jour offerings. It's also the first, I believe, with co-author Adam Hamdy, and my gut reaction when I finished was the meshing of the two voices needs a little more work; there were a few spots when the writing switch wasn't totally seamless.

Other than that, though, the whole thing is another slam-bam page-turner, this time set mostly in, well, the obvious. Can Private founder Jack Morgan identify and thwart the roots of all evil that threatens the very future of the United States - and maybe the entire world - before someone thwarts him permanently? Well, of course - otherwise it would be the end of the series - but the devil (in the form of a really nasty Russian guy) is in the details.

Initially, Jack gets involved after a long-trusted friend and former U.S. Marine buddy invites him to New York to discuss something important - and watch as the guy rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to announce his highly successful company's IPO. Needless to say, it doesn't go well; just as his hand brings down the hammer, his head explodes - and Jack's heroic efforts to chase down the assassin go up in smoke (well, actually, in a helicopter). Immediately thereafter, his dead buddy's widow hires Private to start another chase, which hopefully will end on a more positive note.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Moscow, the Private office, headed by Dinara Orlova, is struggling a bit. Then, they take on a new client, a Russian oligarch who wants the agency to investigate a recent blast that killed a Russian woman. From that point on, scenes shift from New York to Moscow and the two cases - and readers begin to wonder (as does Jack and his team) if there's a connection between the two murders so far apart.

Suffice it to say it's a race to the finish, with a few casualties, near-casualties, successes and outright blunders (none of which, of course, I can expand upon without spoiling things for others). Fast-paced and on the exciting side, I couldn't wait to get to the end. And BTW, for those new to the Private series, while I always recommend starting at the beginning, this one stands well on its own. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review it.

Private Moscow by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy (Grand Central Publishing, June 2023); 480 pp.