Customer Reviews

Private Screening

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the first Patterson book I have read, and it was a decent, readable book. The characters are likeable, but ultimately unsympathetic. The strongest relationship I felt was between the main character and his son, but that is the only example of his straying from ambiguity. The Author also throws too many characters at the reader at one time, which also makes the book confusing at first. It is also best to approach this book as two stories in one. The first(which is half the book) is a flashback trial, which is handled wonderfully. The second, brings you to the present point and flip flops around before the final climax. Although I did enjoy reading the book, I will not rush out and buy another one of Pattersons works. If I happen upon one at a clearance sale, then I feel it is money well spent

This early novel by Patterson is far inferior to his later works, but I think it stands on its own in kind of a predatory or sadistic way. The whole concept of hostages being negotiated and aired as a t.v. special is all too frighteningly real, considering the nation's obsession with so-called reality television. But the premise is intriguing, and the story has some tense and riveting scenes. My main complaint is that within the novel, John Damone tells Stacy that "the man I hired killed him. Lord just brought it up again.." So i figured Stacy was in on it, but obviously she wasn't. This little confusing issue kind of squelched my overall enthusiasm for the novel, but even then Patterson was writing awesomely, giving us a glimpse of what he's come to do best---trial novels!
RECOMMENDED.

When I first starting reading this book I honestly couldn't tell what was what. But I kept at it and it really paid off! I have never read Patterson before but I can tell you I plan to read a lot more of his work! Even though I figured out the ending pretty much as soon as the hostage was taken it was still fun for me to read.

My first book by Richard North Patterson, whom I've always wanted to read. Well, if someone can tell me of a good one, I'd appreciate it because this one is terrible! I don't think his writing style fits well into the mystery genre, and it was hard to separate the many flashbacks from present time.

Richard North Patterson's "Private Screening". This novel is not among the best of Patterson's list of thriller novels. The story line is just "okay". There is major drag in between chapters and the storyline. It seems Patterson got lost in weaving stories together - a Presidential candidate gets shot - a signer's (presidential candidate's girlfriend) manager and a newspaper baron's wife are kidnapped. The kidnapper demands ransom. The criminal attorney who defended the killer who killed the presidential candidate gets involved in the kidnapping scheme (on the good side) and then the chase begins to nowhere...

Well, there is a twist when the identity of the kidnapper is revealed...but the reader can guess the identity of the kidnapper by well, just guessing! But yes, there is an anti-climax which doesn't provide the necessary jolt.

In the end I was eager to loose this book and move to John Grisham's "The Partner"!

This author never fails to get the story done in an interesting way! GREAT READ.

This was the third book I've read by Patterson, and each one twists and turns until the last page. Although he layers flashbacks throughout, there are times the reader may feel lost. In his subsequent books, Patterson more clearly weaves the multiple layers of his exquisite plots. He is definitely the thinking-reader's hero! The stories read fast and furious to their unexpected conclusions!

I read Private Screening before Silent Witness. After reading the first couple of pages I was hooked. Interesting characters that you could associate and feel with. Always wanting to turn the page to see what would happen next and how all these different characters were to come together in the ending. I thought at first with the terrorism thing that we were going somewhere totally different than into a rock stars life, senator's life and lawyers and veteran's life and how they are so much the same and yet so different in their choices. I couldn't wait to read Silent Witness! Would recommend highly, you won't want to put it down!

Though "Private Screening" is a bit too ornately written for its own good, its author is refreshingly unafraid to play with his plots -- layering flashbacks within flashbacks while keeping the end result from feeling jumbled. Patterson's purple prose (his characters frequently speak in flowery phrases that humans would never use, unless on stage) seems the result of a successful classroom education without the benefit of much real-world experience. (In fairness, "Screening," my first exposure to Patterson, was one of his first novels.) The protagonist is a bit too perfect, and the mystery only accidentally mysterious, but the emotions seem real and the plot well-crafted. I'll enjoy trying another of Richard North Patterson's books -- a later one, perhaps

This is a thoroughly scrambled plotline, full of unsympathetic poorly-drawn characters, droning on for 439 pages.

How can a "bestselling author" write a book with so many factual errors and improbable situations?

Patterson writes that Carson is about to assassinate a presidential candidate, as both of them are standing on stage at a fund-raising concert. Just before, Carson puts "a bullet in the Mauser." Five seconds before firing, Carson raises the gun from 15' away and points it at the candidate. He takes another step toward the candidate and then shoots. Shortly after that shot, Carson fires three shots at a photographer.

Patterson describes the Mauser revolver as "a perfect assassin's gun." WHY? What gun wouldn't be "perfect" from about 13' away?

Patterson doesn't explain why the Secret Service doesn't react within 5 seconds to a handgun pointed at the candidate from 15' away. Nor does Patterson reveal how the one bullet put in the revolver produced four shots fired from the gun. Plus, it's an imaginary gun because Patterson never bothered to research and discover that Mauser never manufactured a revolver!!

Later in the book Patterson describes how trees in Vietnam were "napalmed" to reduce cover for the enemy. Napalm wasn't used; the defoliant Agent Orange was used.

Much later, another villain uses a SILENCED Mauser revolver to shoot someone else. Because of their design, revolvers cannot be silenced.

This is a book well worth skipping!