Bullseye

Locations
Call Number: Mystery / Patterson, James, Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Patterson, James
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Patterson, James	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Patterson, James	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Patterson, James	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Snow blankets the avenues of Manhattan's exclusive Upper West Side. The storm is the perfect cover for a fashionable, highly trained team of lethal assassins as they prowl the streets, hunting their prey. But their first hit is simply target practice. Their next mission may very well turn the Cold War red-hot once again. Stepping directly into the line of fire, the president of the United States is in New York for a summit at the United Nations with his Russian counterpart. Pulled away from his family and pressed into service, Detective Michael Bennett must trace the source of a threat that could rip the country apart-- and ignite a war the likes of which the world has never seen. With allegiances constantly in doubt and no one above suspicion, only Bennett can save the president-- and the country-- before the assassins' deadly kill shot hits its mark.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A Worthy Addition to the Series. submitted by GJBarnett2 on August 28, 2016, 9:49pm Fast paced, unexpected twists and turns, a true page-turner.

Not the best submitted by mlmchale on August 31, 2018, 8:40pm This is not the worst book I've ever read... but it's not a good book.

I normally read sci-fi and fantasy, but I've been trying to branch out into other genres. I grabbed this off the shelf at the library on a whim, because Patterson seems relatively popular and I thought I'd see what was there.

The writing itself felt clunky, as if it was written at an 8th grade level. There's nothing wrong with that if you're writing YA, but I'm pretty sure this isn't intended as YA. Patterson is very explicit, pedantic even, about minor technical details in gear (especially guns.) That's not inherently bad in this kind of story, but coupled with the clumsy prose it felt less like useful information and more like someone trying too hard to impress you by talking about "his world-famous thirty-pound Barrett M107 mounted with Zeiss 6 - 24 x 72 scope." (Page 37, for anyone interested.)

The main plot and characters are fine, if a bit contrived -- they pretty much fit what you'd expect from this kind of genre fiction. There's a side arc unrelated to the main story that's super cringeworthy because of its racist stereotyping.

Minor spoilers follow. Ready?

Main character guy Mike has a live-in Irish girlfriend and they have 10 kids (which is probably already unrelatable for anyone under 50.) At local high school, mom of (black, so obviously single parent) good guy jock dies, so the school asks Mike to take care of him for a few weeks until his uncle can come get him. Kid is a good kid, but creepy drug dealer guy from the projects shows up and makes him work at his ILLEGAL MARIJUANA OPERATION. He has to, or creepy drug dealer guy will kill him just like he did kid's cousin. Fortunately one of Mike's kids is able to stand up to creepy drug dealer guy and save jock kid.

This was published in 2016. There are so many things wrong with this, not least of which is: marijuana? Really? You could make it meth or crack or any number of things, and you go with pot? This is straight out of Reefer Madness. It makes me think the book was written by a seriously out of touch old white guy... which is probably, sadly, accurate.

As terrible as it sounds, I'm actually underselling it -- you kind of have to read it to see how unbelievable it is. Except don't, because then you'd have to read it. I will say that if you have a drug dealer named Big Flicka go on a gun wielding rampage during which no one will protect the cop's teenage son, you've strayed far enough from reality that your manuscript probably shouldn't be past the editing stage. Yeesh.