The Black Book (Billy Harney Thriller #1)

by James Patterson, David Ellis

Overview

The "thrilling" #1 New York Times and USA Today bestseller (Karin Slaughter): when three bodies are found in a Chicago bedroom, a black book goes missing . . . and the city has never been more dangerous.


Billy Harney was born to be a cop. As the son of Chicago's chief of detectives with a twin sister on the force, Billy plays it by the book. Teaming up with his adrenaline-junkie partner, Detective Kate Fenton, there's nothing he wouldn't sacrifice for his job. Enter Amy Lentini, a hard-charging assistant attorney hell-bent on making a name for herself who suspects Billy isn't the cop he claims to be. They're about to be linked by more than their careers.


A horrifying murder leads investigators to an unexpected address-an exclusive brothel that caters to Chicago's most powerful citizens. There's plenty of incriminating evidence on the scene, but what matters most is what's missing: the madam's black book. Now with shock waves rippling through the city's elite, everyone's desperate to find it.


As Chicago's elite scramble to get their hands on the elusive black book, no one's motives can be trusted. An ingenious, inventive thriller about power, corruption, and the secrets that can destroy a city, The Black Book is James Patterson at his page-turning best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455542673
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Series:	Billy Harney Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	10,504
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

James Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most # 1 New York Times bestsellers. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and has over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Editorial Reviews

"Behind all the noise and the numbers, we shouldn't forget that no one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent—which is what James Patterson has, in spades."—Lee Child, #1 bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

"It's no mystery why James Patterson is the world's most popular thriller writer: his uncanny skill in creating living, breathing characters we truly feel for and seamless, lightning-fast plots. I do this for a living, and he still manages to keep me guessing from the first to last page. Simply put: Nobody does it better."—-Jeffrey Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Collector

"James Patterson is The Boss. End of."—Ian Rankin, bestselling author of Rather Be the Devil

"The plot twists will give you whiplash."
—Washington Post

"Brilliantly twisty...many readers will agree with Patterson that this is the 'best book [he's] written in 25 years.'"
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The mystery is authentic, the lead-up genuinely suspenseful."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Full of startling revelations...pitch-perfect pacing, plotting, and characterization."
—BookReporter.com

From the Publisher

2017-03-07
Peerless networker Patterson (Woman of God, 2016, etc.), who's become as ubiquitous as Betty Crocker, latches on to a co-author who ups his game in several welcome ways.Called to a crime scene, Detective Patti Harney of the Chicago PD finds her twin brother, Detective Billy Harney, shot and left for dead in the bedroom of assistant state's attorney Amy Lentini's condo. Amy is also present and even more dead. So is Billy's partner, Detective Katherine Fenton. Working backward and forward from this opening tableau, the authors ask who shot whom and why. The answers are clearly rooted in a warrantless raid Billy led into an apartment building he'd become certain was operating as a sex club catering to Chicago's finest, including the archbishop and the mayor—even though, as cautious percentage player Lt. Paul Wizniewski warned him, Billy was Homicide, not Vice. The blowback from the raid is predictably intense, entangling Billy, Kate Fenton, and Amy Lentini, who overcomes her initial animosity toward Billy sufficiently to take him to bed. The central mystery is the question of what's become of the little black book in which Amy is certain Ramona Dillavou, the manager of the sex club, recorded the names and particulars of all her celebrity clients. She's convinced that some bad cop pounced on it and spirited it away. But which bad cop? Billy, surviving the shooting that left his partner and his lover dead only to find himself accused of murder on the strength of forensic evidence, is helpless to defend himself because he's lost all memory of what happened in that bedroom. Will he recover it in time to save himself and finger the perp? Most readers will be ahead of the twin investigators in identifying the guilty party. But the mystery is authentic, the lead-up genuinely suspenseful, and the leading characters and situations more memorable than Patterson's managed in quite a while. Co-author Ellis is definitely a keeper.

Kirkus Reviews