Title: Never Never
Author: James Patterson
Series: Detective Harriet Blue, #1
Published: January 2017, Little, Brown & Company
Format: Hardcover, 363 pages
Source: Personal copy
Summary:
When Sydney police
department sex crimes detective Harriet Blue is called into her boss’s
office, she never imagined it would be to tell her that her brother is
the prime suspect in the brutal murders of three women.
Shocked and in
denial, Harry is transferred to Perth to avoid the media exposure this
case will attract. Harry is sent into the outback – the never never – to
investigate the disappearance of mine worker Danny Carter. The mining
town is a seedy place, full of money and immoral ways to spend it. As
Harry delves deeper into the murky lives of these miners, she finds that
Danny isn’t the first to go missing.
***Short & Sweet Reviews are
short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books where I
have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or for
books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not be
used for review requests or blog tours.
My thoughts: I am so glad to have a new character to love from my beloved James Patterson! Don’t get me wrong…I still love my old favorites – all my gals from the Women’s Murder Club and Alex Cross and Michael Bennett, but it’s nice to have someone else to cheer on and that is exactly what we have here – Detective Harriet “Harry” Blue is a breath of fresh air. She is feisty and temperamental, she is gutsy and just fun.
While this is the first full novel in this series, there is a prequel, Black and Blue, which is a novella, that sets up the story. This book picks up right after that and has Detective Harriet Blue being sent out of town to keep her away from the media after the arrest of her brother. She is sent deep into the outback to work on a new case. Three people have been reported missing and Harry’s job is to find out what happened to them.
I loved the setting of this book and I loved that as Harry gets deeper into this case, she realizes that she cannot trust anyone, including the new partner she is assigned, Detective Edward Whittaker. You really felt the isolation of the mine, being cut off from everything, and once again, Harry is teamed with a partner that has his own secrets. This all adds to the suspense and tension of the book and when you add in that Harry is trying to keep her own identity a secret so that the media does not splash it across the pages during this investigation, it adds another layer.
This book is filled with the typical Patterson trademarks – short, quick chapters, fast-pace and plenty of twists and turns leading you to flip those pages at break-neck speed. I loved that we are given so many people to suspect and not once did I guess the real culprit! I can’t wait to see what happens next for Harry…plus I really need to know what is going on with Harry’s brother. We are left with quite the cliffhanger! And is this new partner sticking around this time?
Books in this series:
0.5 Black & Blue
1. Never Never
2. Fifty Fifty
3. Liar Liar
