Private Screening

Rating:
Summary: One of Patterson's first books, it's impossible to put down!
Review: This was the third book I've read by Patterson, and each one twists and turns until the last page. Although he layers flashbacks throughout, there are times the reader may feel lost. In his subsequent books, Patterson more clearly weaves the multiple layers of his exquisite plots. He is definitely the thinking-reader's hero! The stories read fast and furious to their unexpected conclusions!

Rating:
Summary: Thinking-person's Grisham, with a dash of sensationalism
Review: Though "Private Screening" is a bit too ornately written for its own good, its author is refreshingly unafraid to play with his plots -- layering flashbacks within flashbacks while keeping the end result from feeling jumbled. Patterson's purple prose (his characters frequently speak in flowery phrases that humans would never use, unless on stage) seems the result of a successful classroom education without the benefit of much real-world experience. (In fairness, "Screening," my first exposure to Patterson, was one of his first novels.) The protagonist is a bit too perfect, and the mystery only accidentally mysterious, but the emotions seem real and the plot well-crafted. I'll enjoy trying another of Richard North Patterson's books -- a later one, perhaps