Private Berlin

By: James Patterson, Mark Sullivan

Narrated by: January LaVoy, Ari Fliakos

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Private Berlin has the extraordinary pace and international sophistication that has powered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Patterson's number one best seller The Postcard Killers.

In Europe's most dangerous city.

Chris Schneider is a superstar agent at Private Berlin, Germany headquarters for the world's most powerful investigation firm. He keeps his methods secret as he tackles Private's most high-profile cases—and when Chris suddenly disappears, he becomes Private Berlin's most dangerous investigation yet.

An investigator is searching.

Mattie Engel is another top agent at Private Berlin, gorgeous and ruthlessly determined—and she's also Chris's ex. Mattie throws herself headfirst into finding Chris, following leads to the three people Chris was investigating when he vanished: A billionaire suspected of cheating on his wife, a soccer star accused of throwing games, and a nightclub owner with ties to the Russian mob. Any one of them would surely want Chris gone—and one of them is evil enough to want him dead.

And she's after more than the truth.

Mattie's chase takes her into Berlin's most guarded, hidden, and treacherous places, revealing secrets from Chris's past that she'd never dreamed of in the time they were lovers. On the brink of a terrifying discovery, Mattie holds on to her belief in Chris—in the face of a horror that could force all of Europe to the edge of destruction and chaos.

James Patterson has taken the European thriller to a masterful new level with Private Berlin, an adrenaline-charged, spectacularly violent, and sexy novel with unforgettable characters of dark and complex depths. Private Berlin proves why Patterson is truly the world's number one best-selling author.

©2013 James Patterson (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Great

Would you consider the audio edition of Private Berlin to be better than the print version?

Didn't read the book

What other book might you compare Private Berlin to and why?

All of James Patterson, huge fan

What does January LaVoy and Ari Fliakos bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love listening to books, the readers really bring the books to life.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reaction

Any additional comments?

Like all the Private books before, I loved this one too and I am looking forward to the next one.

Exciting if you like scary voices.

I loved the story but I had to skip over the scary man voice. It was too creepy for me. Scared me.

Another Wow

Five books into this series and five great "reads". Can't wait to get on to the next one.

I like January LaVoy but some of her female voice sound like a man. But hey, you get used to it. One of the things I really liked about this was the story took place in Germany and the characters grew up in Germany. But they had had English accents. They could have easily chose a narrator with a German accent but they didn't, thank goodness.

Not Up To Standard

I have loved the previous "Private" books, this one, not so much. I should have read it rather than listen to it. The writing is very poor, for a Patterson Novel. And yes, I know Patterson didn't write a word of it. His 'co-author' is the true author of these books, but he did put his name on it, and the Patterson name carries certain expectations. Those were not met this time out.

There were a number of disconnects: one of the investigators wondering if a soccer player, theretofore not mentioned in connection with the victim, could have been responsible for the situation. Another disconnect was the description of the investigator's son as being 'intuitive about his mother's moods--when all he did was make a logical connection due to the presence of a cat in the house. And his happiness ran counter to her sad mood. How is THAT intuitive? A third disconnect concerns a list the investigator found at the victim's house, which she hadn't read until later, yet she already knew that the victim was supposed to be seeing the soccer player--before she read the list! I am trying not to give away too much, but I have to point out the victim had been 'missing' for quite sometime, and the last time the investigator saw him was weeks ago, in the timeline of the book. So... how is it possible that she makes these undocumented connections? I'll tell you how... High School level writing and plot development.

As for the performance, even though there is a man (Ari Filakos) and a woman (January Lavoy) AND Ari DOES voice a man in the same segment that January is voicing the women, for some inexplicable reason, January gives voice to Jack Morgan, who comes off sounding like a female bobybuilder with a headcold. She also voices her partner who sounds as you would expect "Moose" to have sounded in the old Archie comic books.

I am too far into this story to stop now, I want to see how this is resolved, but this is NOT Private's finest hour. Though the storyline is compelling...

Death Mask

Story is about the creepiest villain who is fascinated with mask. Berlin was the setting and the time frame just prior to the falling of the Berlin wall. The private agent was a woman this time which added a unique view of the female crime fighter. As usual the book is written with outstanding descriptions of characters and places. Narration was good and book kept my attention.

Secrets among agents.

This book was hard to listen to because of the horrible acts that the criminal did. This book had three different crimes that were going on in Berlin on the Plate of Private. Each crime was not one that Private took on, they had these cases fall into their laps when one of their own was found murdered. One dealt with gambling and lies between a husband and wife, another was the mystery behind a Billionaires wife’s untimely death, and the third was the biggest case, which resulted with 12 individuals being murdered based on their history together. The biggest mystery that the Private detectives must figure out before they can solve the crime, is what exactly happened within their history that lead these individuals together. It seems like every time they think they are getting close, they miss the invisible man.

Ok but dsrk

not what I was expexting. story was a bit darker than I expexted. will listen to the next in the Series ti see ehere it goes

Just meh

Just feel so many of these haven’t had the spark of the “Private Games” book surrounding the Olympics. I keep hoping they will but keep getting disappointed. Not terrible but not up to Patterson standards.

Entertaining

In a lot of ways it felt like a rehash of Private London. Not terribly original, but still entertaining.

The best Private yet!

Out of all the books in this series up until this point this has been the best yet. Extremely captivating preformace!