Every holiday, I have a habit of reclaiming my love for thrillers. It’s not everytime I come across good thrillers but everytime I do, I'm reminded of how much I love reading them. i trust booktok for book recommendations but most of them hardly recommend thrillers. It's always 90% romance and fantasy, 10% other genres. So most times, I resort to paperbacks for good thriller novels but I usually don’t get to come across these paperbacks till I’m back in my city. The prices are outrageous in school and if I should decide to stock up before leaving for school, I might have to get nothing less than 30 paperbacks cause I wouldn't even wait till I reach school before I devour them😂. They might barely even last me a month. I’m exaggerating, lol. I study in a Nigerian university. Where do I have the time to read 30 paperbacks in a month?
Dear, bibliophiles, bookies and readers on hive, I recently read a book titled Killer Instinct by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. I entered this book blindly and all I could do after was to keep taking deep breaths. Why? I was on my toes for all the while I was reading it. The book was wonderful.
I’ve read a James Patterson book back when I was younger and it’s still one of my favourites till this date. It was titled Along Came a Spider. I loved that book so much back then and even now. And this particular book of his was very good too.
Killer Instinct is a 381 paged book written By James Patterson and Howard Roughan that follows the story of Dylan Reinhart, an Ivy league professor and a former CIA operative. After a terrorist attack in New York city, his former partner and current friend Elizabeth is assigned her first case on the Task Force -- An Iranian-born professsor and nuclear physicist that suddenly turned up dead. Although the police are certain he died as a result of self-love gone awry, her boss refuses to believe it. When they check the CCTV footage of the hotel where he was found dead, he is seen walking in with a woman in his arm. A woman whose face is obscured by a mysterious white glow. While Elizabeth has no idea about the glow, Dylan is no stranger to crimes like this.
When Dylan is visited by a strange man who seems to be digging into his past, he has no choice but to team up with Elizabeth as all cases seem linked to one another.
First of all, I want to talk about the authors writing style. This was a suspenseful story and I must say James and Howard achieved whatever they were trying to achieve with the suspense. Just when you're looking for answers, there's a hilarious line in between that goes like
In all, there are two things I'm sure of. One, The sun would rise tomorrow. Two, Life would go on.
What do I need this piece of information for? I need answers. If an eclipse likes, it should occur tomorrow. I don't care. For now, let me know what happens next in this book😂. I loved it for this. I love it when I'm not taken unaware when reading. I'm someone that loves taking breaks when I suspect something intense is coming. I love preparing myself mentally. I'll rather pace around for a little while or go do something else before I come back to it. i didn't need any pacing as the writers already helped me with that. That's why I read this book for 7hours straight on a Monday😂
Dylan as a character was a very sarcastic character. For a professor he was really fun to read about. He even did clumsy things. I don't mean cringe kind of clumsy or stupid clumsy. I mean the hilariously smart kind of clumsy. I don't know if that makes sense. But it was really fun to read. I actually wish my professors were half as sarcastic as Dylan. Bur they're amazing in their own way so it's fine.
Also, there were about three quotes I loved in this book. I'll be highlighting them.
All perfect murders have one thing in common. They never look like murder.
I've read a lot of books that involved murder and I completely understood how true this sentence is. After this line, our villain went ahead to commit the perfect murder😂. Bautifu, isn't it?
Sympathy is a powerful emotion, but it makes a lousy aphrodisiac.
To avoid spoilers, I won't explain where this sentence was made. But I want to tell you this is my favourite among the three. The scene where it was used? So perfect.
When chaos reigns, create more chaos
Okay. I don't think I need to say much about this line. It already speaks for itself in volumes. I loved where it was applied. Dylan countering the villain with greater chaos? It was mind-blowing.
The ending though was a bit unsatisfying. The villain at the end was making choices the villain at the beginning wouldn't have thought of making. In other words, at the end, he was portrayed as stupid. I didn't like this at all. This made it seem like the authors didn't think thoroughly about the villains actions and the circumstances leading to him being apprehended before writing about him.
This was a very good book that I totally enjoyed reading. I'll rate it a solid 8.5/10. Lesser points due to the ending. I'll definitely recommend this book to fellow thriller lovers like me. But also, it's not for everyone. The homophobic ones, it's not for you. If you've been in dire situations like wars /bombing, please stay away from this book.
Thanks for reading.
Second image was taken by me while reading.