Book #25: Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox
Never Never by James Patterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a book that I randomly borrowed, and which conveniently turned out to be the first in a series of thrillers set in Australia, that revolves around the character Detective Harriet Blue.
Harriet "Harry" Blue is an engaging character, mostly because she is a bit of a renegade, a character who seems not afraid to do what she wants to get results. She also comes across as an angry feminist at times (at one point she says she dislikes chivalry from men); she is also very tough, not crying in the book until an emotional final scene.
At that start, Harry Blue's brother Sam has been arrested for a series of murders, and although it is not connecting to the main story, it affects her throughout the novel. I am assuming that this story will become more prominent in the subsequent books.
In this book, Harry is teamed up with a male partner, Edward "Whitt" Whittacker, to investigate a series of disappearances from a mine, one of whom is confirmed as having been murdered. The book is consistently gritty, but engaging all of the way.
The only issue I had was the narrative style. Harry narrates many of the chapters, which is good in that it gives the reader an idea of what she is like, as it takes the narrative inside her head. Some chapters were told from other characters' points of view, from the third person. In some novels, this is done quite well, but in this case, and possibly because there were so many first person chapters, the switching of viewpoint started to feel a bit jarring, which is the main reason why I only gave this a 3/5 rating.
Nevertheless, I am keen to keep reading this series.
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