James Patterson has several bestselling series, each carrying different levels of readership popularity. Detective Alex Cross is his coveted franchise and most successful series, followed by the Women’s Murder Club, Detective Michael Bennett, and the Private novels.
The Detective Michael Bennett series is one of Patterson’s better feel-good characters. Bennett is a successful Detective working special crimes in New York City. His home life and family are really the center of his world and provide the primary reason for the readers to cheer him on. Bennett’s first wife, Maeve, died after fighting a losing battle with cancer, leaving him with their 10 adopted children to raise, along with his sour grandfather and catholic priest, Seamus. During most of the books, Bennett has moved on by falling in love and becoming engaged to his wonderful housekeeper, Mary Catherine.
The good news is that most of the books in this series have been pretty dang good and worth reading for the most part. The first nine books in the series were co-authored by Howard Roughan and built up a nice consistency and rhythm in the plotting and overall character development. However, there was a change. Last year’s and this year’s book have a new co-author - James O. Born - working with Patterson.
I reviewed last year’s book and was less than pleased with the weak plotting and characters acting out of character. It was definitely my least liked Bennett book in the series. I felt like the new co-author was struggling in his understanding of the characters, especially after having Bennett’s son arrested for selling drugs. That just made no sense at all and was so completely out of character, I am still trying to figure out how this move was consistent to any of the character’s previous history.
This year’s book, “Ambush” has some improvements in plotting and characterization; however, it’s offset by more weaknesses that leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth. The adventure kicks off with Bennett responding to an anonymous tip about a crime that’s a set-up to kill him. The book continues the fight against the Mexican cartel, which is not only killing off members of a Canadian cartel in New York, it has put out a contract on Bennett’s life. They even reach out to attack Bennett’s son in prison.
Bennett’s opponent is Alex Martinez, an experienced hitwoman from Bogota, Columbia. Alex is highly trained and deadly, especially with pistols and stiletto, and she spends most of the book focused on taking Bennett out. It becomes a cat and mouse game in New York city between two worthy opponents, as Bennett races to figure out why he is the target before Alex can catch him.
There were some improvements in this book over the last one. I enjoyed the approach of Bennett vs. Alex, two professionals targeting each other. For the most part it developed pretty well, providing tension and interest. I especially liked the new character of Father Alonzo, the new priest that Seamus is training. His secret background was a nicely added touch that I hope is used more in the future, as well as exploring more of personal development the Bennett children and their interests.
There were also some serious weaknesses that hurt the overall read. First, the book is short. Too short. A normal Patterson book runs around 400 pages, give or take 10 – 20 pages. This book is only 303 pages. To fill the rest of the expected page count, there is an added short story titled “Manhunt” added to the end of the book. It is about Bennet’s family attending the Thanksgiving parade and witnessing an attack that causes Bennett to spend 114 pages investigating and hunting down the attackers with the mysteriously assigned Russian agent, Darya Kuznetsova. “Manhunt” is a decent read, but provides little to the Bennett cannon except for the introduction of Darya, who will hopefully make another appearance.
Second, the climax comes at a big disappointment to me. Without giving any details away that may ruin something, I will keep things general. As Alex and Bennett play their dangerous cat and mouse assassination game, Alex is presented as a strong opponent, always selecting the best strategies in eliminating her targets. She is careful, keeps away from public scenes or unnecessarily involving others from being involved. That is… until the delivery of the climax. Suddenly she makes a major uncharacteristic decision on how to get Bennett. One that goes against everything her character has been advertised to do. And that wasn’t enough. That decision is followed by at least two or more less than smart choices that lead to her eventual demise. The authors try to defend her actions as being that of being a professional, but that’s just plain silly. When you read the climax, you will pick up on the out of character errors pretty much right away.
Overall, these last two books are causing my interest in the Detective Michael Bennett series to painfully wane. Even though this mind-candy escapism reading, “Ambush” barely rates a three-star outing. Here’s to hoping you enjoyed it more…