Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson & Marshall Karp
Brent Jones
My own purpose in reading “Kill Me If You Can” was to have a reading experience with James Patterson since I had not read one of his books before. I didn’t pay enough attention to notice right off that the book is a Patterson-Karp collaboration which means I am not sure what I really got.
The plot holds your attention and the story is a fast read. It starts out with an attempted assassination by a hit man known as the Ghost in New York City’s Grand Central Station. The Ghost, considered the world’s best assassin, killed his target but the diamonds were stashed somewhere first and not recovered.
Matthew Bannon is a local art student and he appears to just find the diamonds in an open locker and walk away with them. He takes them home and tells his art professor girlfriend they have tickets to Paris. The extravagant getaway finds itself the focus of two different hired killers with instructions for find Bannon and kill him. The Ghost is expected to redeem himself and find Bannon but now a women assassin has been added to the chase.
Martha Krall is beautiful, intelligent and she is deadly. She resents the Ghost’s involvement and is jealous of his reputation so she was especially happy to learn that besides Bannon she would get a bonus if she also killed the Ghost.
Does Steven King, Dean Koontz or Lee Child have a lot to worry about in being ranked against James Paterson for writing? I am not saying he isn’t a great writer and he has an impressive record, but he is not in the top three on this list nor would I say he is officially number four either.