Hide & Seek by James Patterson

In his novel, Hide & Seek, Patterson relates his story through two points of view: the first-person voice of Maggie Bradford, and a third-person narration that is often filtered through the eyes of Will Shepherd, a psychopath who loves to hurt women. Maggie is a beautiful woman who is considered by some to be a terribly talented pop singer and by others as a black widow killer, since she seems to be involved in the murder of both of her husbands. It is clear in the beginning that the murder of her first husband was justified as she was obviously battered but when it appears that she has also murdered husband number two, a celebrated soccer star, questions begin to surface. To make matters more complicated Maggie has two children, Jennie and Allie, that she will do anything to protect so when it appears as if the despicable Will has made advances on young Jennie, Maggie refuses to defend herself at her murder trial.

Many professional reviewers have used the word “suspenseful” to describe HIDE AND SEEK but I have to disagree as I had a really difficult time believing that this work was a creation by James Patterson as it came no where near the standards that I have come to expect from this author. I found it sad that I never felt compelled to care about what happened to Maggie despite the fact that she was portrayed as an abused woman trying to make it on her own while raising two children. That may have been because I found the story line very predictable and was not surprised when the culprit was disclosed. Furthermore, I felt that it lacked the aspects needed to make for a good suspense thriller since it spent more time describing the sexual intimacies between the characters and describing sexual violence than providing a compelling dialogue and action to keep the plot moving. Don’t misunderstand this review, the book is well written and James Patterson sets the scenes well it’s just that I found it lacking compared to his other work or maybe it was because I viewed the characters as three dimensional as a piece of paper.

[tags]Hide and Seek, James Patterson, mystery, sex, suspense, murder, courtroom drama[/tags]