America’s latest wunderkind President is also a psychopath. Please don’t think this is a “spoiler” comment. The back cover of the book states exactly that in the blurb, while the front cover displays the line “An American President Goes Insane”. (Review by Barry Meehan)
James Patterson has sold over 400 million books worldwide since his first best-seller in 1976 (The Thomas Berryman Number), according to the all-knowing Google. He is one of the most prolific authors of all time, with around 360 published titles to his name. I’m afraid my mathematical brain kicked in when I saw these figures, wondering how any mortal being could produce this output over such a timespan. In his first 30 years of writing (1976 to 2006) he published 40 books, meaning that in the time since – 2006 to 2022 (16 years) his name has been listed as the author of another 320 books. This averages out to 20 per year – one every 18 days!
“Not possible!” I hear you say, and quite rightly so, as it would mean writing 20 pages per day, every day of the year for 16 years! No weekends off, no holidays, no family time, no social time .... no anything time! So how has he achieved this phenomenal output, you might ask?
The answer is perfectly simple – he uses co-authors, who probably do most of the actual writing under his supervision. It would appear that Patterson can almost be described as an executive producer for the Patterson brand. He (apparently) lays out of the idea for each book or series, then oversees the writing of his co-authors, ensuring that each follows the plot and style of writing.
Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not knocking him or his system. The man has found a way to make his fortune, so hats off to him. There are many other top authors following his lead, so the idea obviously appeals to some of those competitors of his. Mostly, the system works for Patterson (the collaboration with Dolly Parton on Run, Rose, Run being a glaring exception) and he has brought in some really good authors to co-write his series, one of them being the co-author of the latest Patterson thriller, Blow Back – Brendan DuBois.
DuBois has co-authored three previous stand-alone thrillers with Patterson in the past, and let’s hope that Patterson keeps him around in the future, because Blow Back really zings along, and is one of the best thrillers I have read in a while. The subject is Keegan Barrett, America’s latest wunderkind President, who is also a psychopath. Please don’t think this is a “spoiler” comment. The back cover of the book states exactly that in the blurb, while the front cover displays the line “An American President Goes Insane”.
Barrett, a former director of the CIA, goes power-mad once in office and devises a plan to seize absolute world-wide power, and orders Special Agents Liam Grey and Noa Himel to put his plan into action. As CIA agents, their duty is to defend the Constitution of the USA against all threats, internal and external. But this latest threat to the country emanates from the White House, causing the agents to question their allegiances.
Blow Back is a taut thriller, with many unexpected twists and turns – altogether a damn good and exciting read. Highly recommended. – Barry Meehan
James Patterson & Brendon Dubois’ thriller Blow Back is published by Penguin. ISBN
978-1-529-12542-9
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