Review: The Paris Mysteries by James Patterson

 

Goodreads Overview:

The City of Lights sets the stage for romance, drama and intrigue in the latest Confessions novel from the world's bestselling mystery writer!

After investigating multiple homicides and her family's decades-old skeletons in the closet, Tandy Angel is finally reunited with her lost love in Paris. But as he grows increasingly distant, Tandy is confronted with disturbing questions about him, as well as what really happened to her long-dead sister. With no way to tell anymore who in her life she can trust, how will Tandy ever get to the bottom of the countless secrets her parents kept from her? James Patterson leads this brilliant teenage detective through Paris on a trail of lies years in the making, with shocking revelations around every corner.

Review:

This is the third book in the Confessions series. While it is set in Paris and there are a number of interesting facts and secrets that emerge, this wasn't my favorite book in the series. I gave it a generous three stars and will continue with the series, but I did not like one of the angles the plot took at the end. Perhaps there is an explanation and things will go in another direction in the next installment, but it just seemed so random and incomprehensible. 

This time around Tandy is trying to find out more about her family's past, specifically her Grandmother who's house they are now living in. In addition, she is investigating what happened to her sister Katherine and the mystery man she was with at the time of the accident. This part of the story I did enjoy along with the twisted connections back to her uncle and her family's pharmaceutical company. 

The other major part of the book was trying to find Tandy's boyfriend James Rampling, who is pretty much in hiding because of his father's controlling ways. Once they are reconnected, he splits again without any sort of explanation because of "the danger their relationship will put Tandy in if his father finds out". This is a complete load of crap in my opinion as evidenced by events that took place later in the book. I really do not see why Patterson did a complete 180 with this character and how it will benefit the series in the end. The same is true for Tandy's "best friend" C.P. who turns out to be the worst friend in history. She was such a sweet character and was dating Tandy's twin brother Harry before they left New York. How things shifted so dramatically in such a short period of time is beyond me. 

There is only one book remaining in the series, so I hope Patterson and Paetro will get things back on track. After reading the description for Confessions The Murder of an Angel and some of the reviews on Goodreads, I do not plan on rushing into reading this final book. As one reviewer put it, "It ends with a fizzle" and another says "the first book in the series was the best of all and it was downhill from there - especially the fourth book". This does not sound promising.