An audacious jewel heist. A murdered actress. A killer case for NYPD Red.

In a city where crime never sleeps, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in only when a case involves the rich, famous, and connected. Detective Zach Jordan and his partner, Kylie MacDonald–the woman who broke his heart at the police academy–are the best of the best, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to catch a criminal, even if it means antagonizing the same high-flying citizens they’re supposed to be helping.

When a glitzy movie premiere is the scene of a shocking murder and high-stakes robbery, NYPD Red gets the call. Traversing the city’s highs and lows, from celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan’s criminal underworld, Zach and Kylie have to find a cold-blooded killer–before he strikes again.

Out of all of the James Patterson series I am actively reading, the NYPD Red series is the only one that still has maintained it’s momentum. Granted, this is only book for and some of the series are in their double digits. But still, I didn’t feel as if I wanted to bash my head in the wall, like I sometimes do with The Women’s Murder Club and Alex Cross series. In fact, my biggest complaint about this book had nothing to do even do with the story and everything to do with the fact the person who borrowed it before me must have been a heavy smoker. It was so bad, that something that normally would have taken me less than one day, took me four to finish. Talk about disgusting.

As with most of these kinds of Patterson books, there are several plot lines going on in a single book.

The first and most prominent story line is about a Hollywood starlet who is murdered while being robbed of a 8 million dollar necklace. This particular story was actually the best of all of them, because it didn’t hold a single personal aspect for any of the main characters involved. As things begin to unfold, the story just continues to get better and better. It’s almost like peeling the layers of an onion, only to discover it’s not making you cry. It was a great experience.

The second story line left me with some mixed emotions. Several hospitals in the NYC area have noticed expensive pieces of machinery missing and the mayor wants to keep everything hush-hush. I suppose one of my biggest issues with this also stems to the one thing I despise about NYPD Red and it’s the fact that the rich and famous get to make their own rules. The newly appointed mayor snaps her fingers and the NYPD Red is basically salivating at the chance to kiss her ass. But, the actual story of the who and why this is happening, touches home with me in a way that I can’t explain without spoiling it for you. Either way, I don’t particularly agree with the outcome of this particular case, no matter how much I sympathize.

Now come the story lines I was less impressed with:

The third story line is about Kylie’s druggie husband who has decided to burn everything to the ground (metaphorically) after refusing to continue with his drug rehab. This of course leaves Kylie completely high strung and a pain of the ass to deal with. Not only is she abusing her status as a cop, but she’s constantly dragging Zach into her mess. In a way, I feel this is continuing to lead him on and that’s why he has not yet, completely gotten over her. Despite the fact they were only together for 28 days over ten years earlier. It’s getting to the point where I wish Patterson would just put the two together and get it over with. But if he did… then the fourth story line would have been more tolerable.

Zach and Cheryl… I don’t know what’s more annoying, the fact he’s sleeping with the department shrink and thus she’s violating HIPAA or the fact she’s completely being unfair to him in their relationship by psychological guilting him into feeling bad for doing his job and being a good partner/friend to Kylie. I agree Zach has lingering issues over his feelings for Kylie, but at the end of the day, they are partners and friends. If he goes out to help her look for her husband or is called away for a case, then Cheryl has no right to be angry. The kicker is when Cheryl rides along with the duo to a crime scene so she can evaluate if Kylie is in the right mental capacity to be working cases. Last I checked, shrinks don’t do that and her behavior came off as possessive and pathetically jealous.

Sadly, I think the common theme with these books is that I enjoy the cases more than I enjoy all of the personal nonsense. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is having this problem, but it kind of sucks to have it. Since I was annoyed with the main characters, I had to knock the rating down a bit. Despite how much I liked the cases, if I’m rolling my eyes at the main characters, then I’m not totally loving this book. But I would still highly recommend this book, especially if you are a fan of James Patterson or the NYPD Red series.

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