Harney and his partner, Carla, follow a lead to a remote house, only to find themselves caught in a deadly trap. Although the suspense and mysteries weren’t bad, there were some actions and outcomes that didn’t really make sense to me and hurt the plotting.

He is the creator of unforgettable characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Effing Smith, and Maximum Ride, and of breathtaking true stories about the Kennedys, John Lennon, and Princess Diana, as well as our military heroes, police officers, and ER nurses. While the case ramps up, Harney cannot help but find distraction in his personal life, which could prove detrimental, but also somewhat necessary. Among his creations are some of the world's most popular series including Alex Cross, the Women's Murder Club, Michael Bennett and the Private novels. Now, in 2022, Patterson and Ellis have brought back Harney for a third thriller, changing the book type title lingo to “Escape” and setting up Detective Harney’s hunt for a child kidnapper. I had no idea where this story was going; it was all over the place at one point, but the authors did a phenomenal job of bringing everything together for a nice ending which included one hell of a surprise!

I have been a big fan of James Patterson for perhaps thirty years having read over a hundred novels but have been disappointed with the nasty language in the more recent stories. Patterson and Ellis have worked well together on this series and this is another positive outcome, proving that there is still something to be said of books that bear the former’s name.

The big kicker is that the mystery was well thought out, had multiple layers, and even more important (for those of us who confidently feel that we can figure out the guilty party before he/she is revealed), the outcome was surprising and extremely well-delivered! Hard-working and honest to a fault, he cannot be bought but is willing to circumvent procedures and policies that he believes would prevent justice from being administered.

When five teenage girls are abducted, Chicago PD Detective Billy Harney leads the investigation to find them. He has written many other number one bestsellers including collaborations with President Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, stand-alone thrillers and non-fiction.

I am late to the series, but quite a bit has happened to Billy in the first two entries, THE BLACK BOOK and THE RED BOOK. With the loss of his partner fuelling him, Harney strengthens his resolve to find her killer - and to make sure the body count ends there.Firm plot lines offer the reader some suspense and leave the book from being too predictable, helping to keep the book mysterious when needed. Take it with you on vacation and enjoy it as you wait for his next book, which you know will be right around the corner. The biggest and most dangerous gang in Chicago, the Nations, was run by a man the cops wanted desperately to take down. As Chicago PD’s special-ops leader, Detective Billy Harney knows well that money is not the only valuable currency.

Overall, this book was an okay escapist read if you are willing to suspend your sense of realism in the storytelling.One key rule to reading Patterson is that you really have to suspend your sense of reality and disbelief to enjoy the adventure. Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. But there are more villains added to the mix as Billy juggles more cases and I wasn't into the rest of the story. Evidently, the success of the first two books have generated enough desire for a third outing and possible series potential with another sympathetic Patterson created law enforcement officer. Ellis, who served as legal counsel to the Illinois legislature, garnered public attention for leading the impeachment proceedings against former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.