Best case: survival

The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal.

Worst case: death

Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can't begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone's children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn the heat up on the mayor, the press--anyone who will listen--to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett's life--and love life--suddenly get even more complicated.

This case: Detective Michael Bennett is on it

Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI's intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes his routine. His plan leads up to the most devastating demonstration yet--one that could bring cataclysmic devastation to every inch of New York. From the shocking first page to the last exhilarating scene, Worst Case is a non-stop thriller from "America's #1 storyteller" (Forbes).

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::AMAZON REVIEWS::

An exciting story with an engaging hero
James Patterson's co-authored books vary quite a bit in quality, and I think this one, along with the first two books in the series, is among the best of them. NYPD detective Michael Bennett, the widowed father of 10 delightful adopted children, is an engaging protagonist. In this action-packed tale, Bennett, along with FBI agent Emily Parker, is in pursuit of an extremely dangerous, deranged killer with a political ax to grind who is kidnapping the teenage offspring of some of New York's wealthiest families. It's an exciting, suspenseful, enthralling read that aficionados of fast-paced thrillers with a good, complex plot, plenty of twists and turns, and likable, intelligent main characters will enjoy.

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Worst Case
Great did not know this was first book of this series, bought two by mistake, gave the second one as a gift, Thank you for the fast delivery.

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Two useless cops and one deranged maniac
This story follows the usual Patterson formula: You have a really cold-blooded serial killer, and a completely useless police force trying to catch him and not really having much success until the very very end.

The book is ok, I'd say below average for Patterson. What I felt worked particularly poorly was the relationships between the two policemen, and the main character's personal life. All of that was extremely flat, and just so "wrong". Anyhow, if you are a Patterson fan and enjoy his other works, then like I said, this one is representative, but probably somewhat below average.

For the audiobook: as usual it's a nice production: clean with nice use of occasional sound effects and music. They use 3 different readers, and each reader plays several parts. Unfortunately, all of the readers do a really poor job of differentiating the characters they read for, so it gets confusing at times.

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Great read
What can I say? It's James Patterson. Buy this book, and prepare for a weekend on the couch!

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Brenda's review
Great book. One of those that hooks you from the beginning and then you don't want to put
it down. Par for the course for the great James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge. Great
collaboration once again.

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