Private L.A.
Authors: James Patterson,Mark Sullivan
Contents
Jack Morgan is having a bad week. His twin brother is up on a murder charge and determined to frame him for the crime, and one of Jack’s clients has just called to report the burnt bodies of four surfers on his beach.
But what seems like a random mugging gone wrong soon reveals something far worse – a killer calling themselves No Prisoners is holding the city to ransom. And there’s more bad news: Hollywood’s golden couple, Thom and Jennifer Harlow, have been kidnapped, along with their adopted children.
It looks like the whole world is about to discover whether Private are really as good as they say they are …
JAMES PATTERSON
is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade – the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Detective Michael Bennett novels – and he has written many other number one best-sellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.
James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books specifically for young readers. James is a founding partner of Booktrust’s Children’s Reading Fund in the UK. In 2010, he was voted Author of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards in New York.
MARK SULLIVAN
is the author of nine mystery and suspense novels, including
Outlaw
. He lives in Montana with his wife and sons.
PRIVATE NOVELS
Private (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Private London (
with Mark Pearson
)
Private Games (
with Mark Sullivan
)
Private: No. 1 Suspect (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Private Berlin (
with Mark Sullivan
)
Private Down Under (
with Michael White
)
Along Came a Spider
Kiss the Girls
Jack and Jill
Cat and Mouse
Pop Goes the Weasel
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Four Blind Mice
The Big Bad Wolf
London Bridges
Mary, Mary
Cross
Double Cross
Cross Country
Alex Cross’s Trial (
with Richard DiLallo
)
I, Alex Cross
Cross Fire
Kill Alex Cross
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
Alex Cross, Run
Cross My Heart
1st to Die
2nd Chance (
with Andrew Gross
)
3rd Degree (
with Andrew Gross
)
4th of July (
with Maxine Paetro
)
The 5th Horseman (
with Maxine Paetro
)
The 6th Target (
with Maxine Paetro
)
7th Heaven (
with Maxine Paetro
)
8th Confession (
with Maxine Paetro
)
9th Judgement (
with Maxine Paetro
)
10th Anniversary (
with Maxine Paetro
)
11th Hour (
with Maxine Paetro
)
12th of Never (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Unlucky 13 (
with Maxine Paetro, to be published March 2014
)
Step on a Crack (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Run for Your Life (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Worst Case (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Tick Tock (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
I, Michael Bennett (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Gone (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
NYPD Red (
with Marshall Karp
)
NYPD Red 2 (
with Marshall Karp, to be published June 2014
)
Sail (
with Howard Roughan
)
Swimsuit (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Don’t Blink (
with Howard Roughan
)
Postcard Killers (
with Liza Marklund
)
Toys (
with Neil McMahon
)
Now You See Her (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Kill Me If You Can (
with Marshall Karp
)
Guilty Wives (
with David Ellis
)
Zoo (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
NYPD Red (
with Marshall Karp
)
Second Honeymoon (
with Howard Roughan
)
Mistress (
with David Ellis
)
Torn Apart (
with Hal and Cory Friedman
)
The Murder of King Tut (
with Martin Dugard
)
Sundays at Tiffany’s (
with Gabrielle Charbonnet
)
The Christmas Wedding (
with Richard DiLallo
)
First Love (
with Emily Raymond
)
MAXIMUM RIDE SERIES
The Angel Experiment
School’s Out Forever
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
The Final Warning
Max
Fang
Angel
Nevermore
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (
with Michael Ledwidge
)
Watch the Skies (
with Ned Rust
)
Demons and Druids (
with Adam Sadler
)
Game Over (
with Ned Rust
)
Armageddon (
with Chris Grabenstein
)
Witch & Wizard (
with Gabrielle Charbonnet
)
The Gift (
with Ned Rust
)
The Fire (
with Jill Dembowski
)
The Kiss (
with Jill Dembowski
)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (
with Chris Tebbetts
)
Middle School: Get Me Out of Here! (
with Chris Tebbetts
)
Middle School: My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar (
with Lisa Papademetriou
)
Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill (
with Chris Tebbetts
)
I Funny (
with Chris Grabenstein
)
I Even Funnier (
with Chris Grabenstein
)
Treasure Hunters (
with Chris Grabenstein
)
Confessions of a Murder Suspect (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Confessions: The Private School Murders (
with Maxine Paetro
)
Daniel X: Alien Hunter (
with Leopoldo Gout
)
Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 1–7 (
with NaRae Lee
)
For more information about James Patterson’s novels, visit
www.jamespatterson.co.uk
Or become a fan on Facebook
For Betty Jane
—M. S.
NO PRISONERS
One
IT WAS NEARING
midnight that late-October evening on a dark stretch of beach in Malibu. Five men, lifelong surfers, lost souls, sat around a fire blazing in a portable steel pit set into the sand.
The multimillion-dollar homes up on the fragile cliffs showed no lights save security bulbs. Waves crashed in the blackness beyond the firelight. The wind was picking up, temperature dropping. A storm built offshore.
Facing the fire, four of them with their backs to surfboards stuck in the sand, the men sipped Coronas, passed and sucked on a spliff of Humboldt County’s finest.
“Bomber weed, N.P.,” choked Wilson, who’d done two tours in Iraq and had come home at twenty-six incapable of love and responsibility, good only for getting high, riding big waves, and thinking profound thoughts. “With that hit I most assuredly have achieved total clarity of mind. I can see it all, dog. The whole cosmic thing.”