Ratings9
Average rating3.7
"NYPD Red--the task force attacking the most extreme crimes in America's most extreme city--hunts a killer who is on an impossible mission. A vigilante serial killer is on the loose in New York City, tracking down and murdering people whose crimes have not been punished. The number of victims grows, and many New Yorkers secretly applaud the idea of justice won at any price. NYPD Red Detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald are put on the case when a woman of vast wealth and even greater connections disappears. Zach and Kylie have to find what's really behind this murderer's rampage while political and personal secrets of the highest order hang in the balance. But Kylie has been acting strange recently--and Zach knows whatever she's hiding could threaten the biggest case of their careers. --
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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Yeah, I was underwhelmed by NYPD Red, but thought that maybe this series would pick up a little, with everything established in the first. Wow, was I wrong.
This is basically a Dexter retelling – murderers who got off thanks to good lawyers, bad prosecutors, etc being kidnapped, tortured and killed. Before they're killed, they record a video confession to their crimes, which is uploaded to YouTube shortly after their body is discovered.
Of course, one of the victims is the campaign manager for a mayoral candidate, and the body is discovered 8 days before the election – making the whole investigation a political issue in addition to a pressing crime. Given the prestige and notoriety of the latest victim, the case is bumped up to the NYPD Red team.
From there, it's pretty much a paint-by-numbers affair – I called the whole thing, even the twists, early on. There's so little to commend in this book that I can't think of a positive way to finish this sentence.
I guess I understand why you'd have two narrators for the audiobook – one for the first person detective narration, one for the other perspectives. But I think we're all smart enough to follow things with just one voice. Both narrators did a decent job, but nothing remarkable. They probably did the best they could with the flat prose and dull dialogue.
Dull, predictable plot with personal side-stories that made me like everyone less. Both authors are capable of such more – I don't know why they aren't delivering with this series.
Series
5 primary booksNYPD Red is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by James Patterson and Marshall Karp.