Worst Case is the third Michael Bennett Detective novel from Michael Ledwidge and James Patterson. It introduces Virginia FBI agent Emily Parker to the NYPD team investigating the kidnappings of children from wealthy families.
Francis Mooney is a lawyer who deals with his cancer diagnosis by kidnapping children to teach them a lesson about priviledge. If they fail to correctly answer his set of questions about water distribution or third world tax shelters, he lets the family know where they can find the body. Interesting what he does when he meets that one kid who can answer it all! He wants to teach the world a lesson held over from his liberal demonstration days. His goal: redistribution of wealth by destroying the New York Stock Exchange. Enter the crack team of Michael and Emily.
While not being any more exciting than a casual TV crime show, it's more of a police thriller and thankfully the story stays on point. Bennett's ten children aren't in this much, off working on a science project. As expected, Mary Catherine and Emily Parker are both keen on Michael, and he unsympathically plays them both. This story is more balanced than the previous two, as it brings up equality and economic issues. The villain is as always a wise-ass, with a bee in his bonnet not for monetary gains but taking the ways of the world as a personal slight. His humanizing weakness: stopping people from littering on the street and teaching them to recycle, or making them stop idling their car at the curb. Does this make him more relatable to the reader, we should forgive his deadly actions?
Emily is a good character, a little out of place like she should be in another novel. She needs a spin-off, which I am sure is in the works. There are already spin off novels for each of the Bennett children, who I guess get their own series. This wasn't a winner, but was readable if you can get past the usual ridiculous villain. This was a hit for fans.
2010 / Paperback / 320 pages
Commentaires