Shattered by James Patterson - Book Review

 A Michael Bennett Thriller

Author James Patterson has written over 200 books, some of which have been co-authored by several different people. His genre is varied, including stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction, and romance novels. In addition, he is known for several series, such as the Alex Cross series and the Women's Murder Club series.

This book, Shattered, is one of the latest in one of my favorite series by Patterson – The Michael Bennett Series.

Michael Bennett

The main character in the Michael Bennett series, is a New York City police detective who is the father of ten adopted multicultural children. His wife died young and a young Irish girl named Mary Catherine became the family nanny. Michael also gets help with his large family from his grandfather, Seamus, who raised him. Seamus, after raising his own family and becoming widowed, decides late in life to follow a calling and becomes a Catholic Priest. Mary Catherine, Seamus, and all the children play a big part in each Michael Bennett story. Thus, with each book in the series, you have a thriller that is a murder mystery coupled with equal parts of Michael's family life. 

Plot of Shattered

As Shattered begins, Michael, who earlier in the series fell in love with Mary Catherine, is on his honeymoon in Ireland. As their trip nears its end, Michael finds a missed phone call from Emily Parker, an FBI colleague he had worked with on past cases. 

Emily, an FBI abduction specialist, had worked many cases with Michael and they had become good friends. When Michael cannot reach Emily, he discovers that she failed to show at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. 

After returning to New York and settling in with the family, Michael admits to his new bride that he feels he must look into Emily's disappearance, even though DC is far outside his jurisdiction. As he delves into this most personal of investigations, he discovers that Emily has been keeping secrets. She had forged powerful connections in the political world and consequently made enemies who have motives to silence her – and her protectors. That just may include Michael. 

Summary

Shattered is Book #14 of 15 in the Michael Bennett Series. As always the case with a James Patterson book, the plot is a good one and the interspersing of family life keeps this thriller more warmhearted and fun to read. 

Shattered is co-authored by James O. Born. Patterson has often said that collaborating with others brings new and interesting ideas to his stories. He admits that he is simply more proficient at dreaming up plots than crafting sentence after sentence.

*Book Review of Shattered written by Wednesday Elf

Shattered by James Patterson, a Michael Bennett Thriller, is available on Amazon.

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What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline – Book Review

 I have just finished reading What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline, and all I can say is ~ WOW!

I have been a fan of this author for many years and have read all of her books to date.  My favorite ones are her entire series of Rosato & DiNunzio novels, which follows the adventures of a group of women lawyers in practice together in Philadelphia. The characters are all clever and competent and downright enjoyable to follow. The story-lines are terrific and they are a fast-paced and often witty read.  

In addition, Scottoline has written a group of stand-alone novels, all of which are excellent, but somehow more serious, and even a bit darker, than her Philadelphia lawyers series.

This bring me to the most serious and tension-filled one to date. What Happened to the Bennetts will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. The WOW-factor comes in because I never saw the ending coming and the solution is surprising. 

Synopsis

The story revolves around a family – The Bennetts – who live a normal suburban lifestyle. Jason Bennett is the dad who owns a court-reporting business. His wife, Lucinda, has her own photography studio.  Daughter Allison is 15 and plays lacrosse. Her brother, Ethan is 13. And don't forget the dog, Moonie. 

While driving home from Allison's lacrosse game one night, a pickup truck begins tailgating them. Suddenly, the truck pulls in front of the Bennett's vehicle, two men jump from the truck and pull guns on Jason in what appears to be a carjacking. The violence that occurs then changes the Bennett's life drastically. 

Turns out that the carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization. One of the men is the son of the mob boss. When he is killed, it places the Bennett family in critical danger.

The FBI advises the family to enter the witness protection program immediately. They do, but serious problems arise. You see, WITSEC was designed to protect criminal informants, not law-abiding families. Think about it. Ordinary families have connections – friends, classmates, teammates, co-workers - all of whom start searching for and wondering about What Happened to the Bennetts! Social media and news outlets keep the Bennetts in the headlines, while at the same time the criminal organization is searching for them.

But the Bennett family discover that they cannot survive in a witness protection program if they are going to keep the family from falling apart.  

Then, Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes he has to take matters into his own hands. 

Summary

What Jason ultimately does to find a solution to the situation is amazing.  The ending will surprise you.

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*What Happened to the Bennetts book review was written by 

~ Wednesday Elf.

Latest Psychological Thriller by Lisa Scottoline

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Reviewing Joy Ellis' Nikki Galena Series

 Have you heard of the novelist Joy Ellis?   I discovered her and her Matt Bollard series by a happy coincidence and am now devouring her Nikki Galena Series of books.

Joy Ellis - Nikki Galena Series of Books

Joy Ellis writes police murder mysteries based in England's Fenlands which provides a really atmospheric background to the novels and makes me really want to visit some of the desolate villages of the Fen and photograph them .... although there does seem to be a few too many murders occurring!

Now at the time of writing, there are 13 Nikki Galena books and I have read 8 of them with number 9 waiting for me on my Kindle.   I recommend reading these books in order as you build up relationships with the members of Nikki's team and understand their backstories that way.

In the first book, we meet a pretty angry, hostile DI Nikki Galena and are introduced to her new DS Joseph Easter who she really didn't want to work with.   As the book evolves we see that they actually make a great team and we also get to meet the other members of her team based in Greensborough.

I actually downloaded books 1-5 as a book set on my Kindle and I really recommend doing that as some of the threads, especially that of a certain villain continue throughout these books.  If you have enough of Inspector Nik and her crew by this time you will at least rest easy knowing certain things have reached a conclusion.

Personally, I wanted to continue so I downloaded book 6, Captive on the Fens.  This book introduced us to a new character and a totally unexpected twist that relates to an existing character which really led to a very neat transition of team members in the next book.

I then downloaded another set and this was for books 7-9.

I totally recommend getting book sets because you really don't want to stop at just one book with these characters.  I feel like it's watching one of your favourite tv shows and you want to tune in each week to see how they're going - that's how good Joy Ellis is at creating characters.

I was able to download all of these books for free as part of my Kindle Unlimited membership which I have mentioned before and thoroughly recommend.

If you enjoy shows like Midsommer Murders and Vera and you also enjoy reading then I think you'll love this series of books by Joy Ellis.  Joy Ellis is compared to Peter May, J M Dalgliesh and Ann Cleeves (the author of Vera - totally agree with this comparison) and was nominated for Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2021 for The Patient Man.   This book is part of her Jackman & Evans series which is next on my list to read after I finish all of the Nikki Galena books.

Have you read any Joy Ellis books?

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